c m y k c m y k Vol. 82 No. 324 Established 1938 48 PAGES PLUS A FREE COPY OF 16-PAGE SUNDAY CHRONICLE | `7.00 deccanchronicle.com, facebook.com/deccannews THE LARGEST CIRCULATED ENGLISH DAILY IN SOUTH INDIA HYDERABAD I SUNDAY I 24 NOVEMBER 2019 BHAGWAN P PARAB | | D DC MUMBAI, NOV. 23 Politics in Maharashtra was turned on its head as the BJP, in a midnight coup, snatched triumph from the Maha Vikas Aghadi — Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress — by engineering a split in the Sharad Pawar-led NCP on Saturday. In a dramatic early morning devel- opment, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari swore in Devendra Fadnavis as Chief Minister and rebel NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who had the support of some NCP MLAs, as deputy Chief Minister. The Governor gave the new govern- ment time till November 30 to prove its majority in the Assembly. However, in another twist, the NCP claimed that the majority of MLAs that had initially gone with Ajit Pawar had returned to the party fold. It sacked Ajit Pawar as the leader of its legislative party in the evening and in his place appointed Jayant Patil, a trusted lieutenant of Sharad Pawar. NCP MP Supriya Sule, daughter of Sharad Pawar, meanwhile appealed to Ajit Pawar to resign as deputy Chief Minister. Till Friday, the Sena-NCP-Congress alliance looked set to form the next government, with Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as the likely Chief Minister. It was not to be. In the early hours of Saturday, the Governor announced that the President’s Rule stood revoked. It launched a series of developments that not only rocked state politics but also thwarted the Maha Vikas Aghadi bid to form a government. The operation was carried out in total secrecy and no one had a clue. At about 8 am, nearly a dozen NCP MLAs accompanied Ajit Pawar to Raj Bhavan for the swearing-in. They included Bharat Shingane, Sandeep Kshirsagar, Sunil Bhusara, Balasaheb Patil, Daulat Daroda, Narhari Zirwal, Manikrao Kokate, Dilip Bankar, Sunil Tingre, Sunil Shelke, Anil Patil and Sunil Solanke. Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were administered their oaths in quick succession. Later in the day, however, the NCP claimed that most of those MLAs had returned. “We had no idea of the reason we were taken to Raj Bhavan,” Shingane claimed. “We stand with Sharad Pawar.” The Congress, the NCP and the Sena criticised the Union govern- ment and the Governor for the haste shown in administering the oath to Fadnavis. Sharad Pawar described Ajit Pawar’s decision to join hands with the BJP as an act of indiscipline, and said Ajit and other party MLAs who switched sides would attract provisions of the anti-defection law. Claiming that the new BJP-led dis- pensation would not pass the floor test, he asserted that the Shiv Sena- NCP-Congress combine had the num- bers and would ultimately form the government. “Sins are committed in the dark of night,” said Uddhav Thackeray. SANJAY B BASAK | | D DC NEW DELHI, NOV 23 A few days after November 8, when Devendra Fadnavis resigned as Chief Minister, a saffron leader in Pune swung into action. The “man from Pune” close to the BJP high com- mand in Maharashtra and to Ajit Pawar, made a call to the latter and began clandestine negotiations to form a BJP-Ajit Pawar government. BJP had identified Ajit Pawar as the “weak link” which “with a little pres- sure was likely to snap.” The “Pune man” thus began the master-plan for the midnight coup that India woke up to on Saturday morning. The main hurdle was uncle Sharad Pawar, who had begun a covert dialogue with the Shiv Sena. The second and the trickier issue was winning over NCP MLAs and split- ting the party. The “Pune man” and Ajit Pawar began tapping the MLAs individual- ly. What worked to Ajit’s advantage was that he was already the leader of NCP’s legislative party and was a grass-roots leader. Sources disclosed that Ajit Pawar was also “entrusted” with the task of derailing and delaying the NCP- Congress talks. “By making impossi- ble demands, Ajit would delay the negotiations,” sources said. In Delhi, Ajit Pawar reportedly deployed NCP MP Sunil Tatkare to continue his secret talks with the BJP. Tatkare also began tapping the NCP MLAs and enticing them to switch allegiance. The issue that riled Ajit Pawar was the NCP-Congress’ decision to freeze the Chief Minister’s berth for the Shiv Sena for five years. Ajit Pawar wanted the post on a rotational basis. Sources revealed that as the meet- ings between Sena-NCP and Congress gained momentum, the BJP central leadership got in touch with Ajit. ■ Page 8 8 : : P Pawar t turned d down Modi’s r request Ajit Pawar was double agent of ‘Pune man’ WTF adnavis Ajit rebels, ditches uncle to back BJP govt PRAMOD K KUMAR | | D DC NEW DELHI, NOV. 23 The Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress on Saturday night moved the Supreme Court seeking the quashing of Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari’s decision to invite Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to form government and swearing in him and deputy CM Ajit Anantrao Pawar. The hearing will take place today at 11.30 am. ■ Full r report o on P Page 7 7 SC to hear Sena plea SONU S SHRIVASTAVA | | D DC MUMBAI, NOV. 23 Though the government has been formed, it is still not clear if it has a clear majority. The BJP has 105 MLAs and needs 40 more to reach the majority mark. According to sources, nearly 28 to 30 NCP MLAs are with Ajit Pawar. The BJP also has the support of around 15 independent MLAs. ■ Full r report o on P Page 8 8 Ajit is in touch with 30 MLAs BHAGWAN P PARAB | | D DC MUMBAI, NOV. 23 Governor B.S Koshyari has given a deadline of November 30 for Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to prove his majority in the Vidhan Sabha, but the actual show of strength will be election of the Assembly Speaker. This will come first, and will deter- mine whether Fadnavis will continue as CM or not. ■ Full r report o on P Page 8 8 Speaker poll is acid test DEJA VU THE PAWAR VS PAWAR BATTLE BHAGWAN P PARAB | | D DC MUMBAI, NOV. 23 “Party and family splits.” This WhatsApp status posted by NCP MP Supriya Sule on Saturday said it all. Her post read: "Whom to trust? The biggest cheating in my life. What did I receive in lieu of the support and love I gave to him? (sic)" Later, an emotional Ms Sule broke into tears while speaking to the media. It was not the first time that a dispute in the Pawar fam- ily came out into the open. Earlier there were murmurs that not all was well in the family headed by NCP chief Sharad Pawar. The signs of conflict were visible on sev- eral occasions. ■ Full R Report o on P Page 8 8 MOVE FROM KAKA’S PLAYBOOK APRAMEYA R RAO | | D DC MUMBAI, NOV. 23 In splitting the NCP, Ajit Pawar managed to repeat what his uncle Sharad Pawar had done in July 1978 to become Chief Minister. An election in 1978 threw a hung Assembly with the Janata Party emerging as the single- largest party at 99 seats. However, the two factions of the Congress together held over 130. With the support of smaller parties and independents, the uneasy post-poll coalition enjoyed a wafer-thin majority of just four seats. With an unsteady alliance the Vasantdada Patil-led gov- ernment was always on notice. That the government would fall was never in doubt. The end was brought about by the then-37-year-old Sharad Pawar. ■ Full r report o on P Page 8 8 Newly sworn-in Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis with his deputy Ajit Pawar in Mumbai on Saturday. — PTI PG 7 | AJIT PAWAR SACKED SATURDAY 2.30 am | Governor recommends removal of President’s Rule. 5.30 am | Ajit Pawar, Fadnavis arrive at Raj Bhavan. 5.47 am | President’s Rule is revoked. 7.50 am | Governor administers the oath of office Fadnavis, Pawar. 8.40 am | Modi con- gratulates new CM and deputy CM. 12.45 pm | Sharad Pawar, Sena hold a joint press conference; vow to defeat the Fadnavis government during the floor test. 7.30 pm | Ajit sacked as legislative chief. NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray during a joint press conference in Mumbai on Saturday.
Transcript
c m y k c m y k
Vol. 82 No. 324 Established 193848 PAGES PLUS A FREE COPY OF 16-PAGE SUNDAY CHRONICLE | `7.00deccanchronicle.com, facebook.com/deccannews
THE LARGEST CIRCULATED ENGLISH DAILY IN SOUTH INDIAHYDERABAD I SUNDAY I 24 NOVEMBER 2019
BHAGWAN PPARAB || DDC MUMBAI, NOV. 23
Politics in Maharashtra was turnedon its head as the BJP, in a midnightcoup, snatched triumph from theMaha Vikas Aghadi — Shiv Sena,NCP and Congress — by engineeringa split in the Sharad Pawar-led NCPon Saturday.
In a dramatic early morning devel-opment, Governor Bhagat SinghKoshyari swore in DevendraFadnavis as Chief Minister and rebelNCP leader Ajit Pawar, who had thesupport of some NCP MLAs, asdeputy Chief Minister.
The Governor gave the new govern-ment time till November 30 to proveits majority in the Assembly.
However, in another twist, the NCPclaimed that the majority of MLAsthat had initially gone with AjitPawar had returned to the party fold.
It sacked Ajit Pawar as the leader ofits legislative party in the eveningand in his place appointed JayantPatil, a trusted lieutenant of SharadPawar.
NCP MP Supriya Sule, daughter ofSharad Pawar, meanwhile appealedto Ajit Pawar to resign as deputyChief Minister.
Till Friday, the Sena-NCP-Congressalliance looked set to form the nextgovernment, with Sena chief UddhavThackeray as the likely ChiefMinister. It was not to be.
In the early hours of Saturday, theGovernor announced that thePresident’s Rule stood revoked. Itlaunched a series of developments
that not only rocked state politics butalso thwarted the Maha VikasAghadi bid to form a government.
The operation was carried out intotal secrecy and no one had a clue.
At about 8 am, nearly a dozen NCPMLAs accompanied Ajit Pawar to RajBhavan for the swearing-in. Theyincluded Bharat Shingane, SandeepKshirsagar, Sunil Bhusara,Balasaheb Patil, Daulat Daroda,Narhari Zirwal, Manikrao Kokate,Dilip Bankar, Sunil Tingre, SunilShelke, Anil Patil and Sunil Solanke.
Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar wereadministered their oaths in quicksuccession.
Later in the day, however, the NCPclaimed that most of those MLAs hadreturned.
“We had no idea of the reason wewere taken to Raj Bhavan,” Shinganeclaimed. “We stand with SharadPawar.” The Congress, the NCP andthe Sena criticised the Union govern-ment and the Governor for the hasteshown in administering the oath toFadnavis. Sharad Pawar describedAjit Pawar’s decision to join handswith the BJP as an act of indiscipline,and said Ajit and other party MLAswho switched sides would attractprovisions of the anti-defection law.
Claiming that the new BJP-led dis-pensation would not pass the floortest, he asserted that the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine had the num-bers and would ultimately form thegovernment.
“Sins are committed in the dark ofnight,” said Uddhav Thackeray.
SANJAY BBASAK || DDC NEW DELHI, NOV 23
A few days after November 8, whenDevendra Fadnavis resigned as ChiefMinister, a saffron leader in Puneswung into action. The “man fromPune” close to the BJP high com-mand in Maharashtra and to AjitPawar, made a call to the latter andbegan clandestine negotiations toform a BJP-Ajit Pawar government.BJP had identified Ajit Pawar as the“weak link” which “with a little pres-sure was likely to snap.”
The “Pune man” thus began themaster-plan for the midnight coupthat India woke up to on Saturdaymorning. The main hurdle was uncleSharad Pawar, who had begun acovert dialogue with the Shiv Sena.The second and the trickier issue waswinning over NCP MLAs and split-ting the party.
The “Pune man” and Ajit Pawarbegan tapping the MLAs individual-ly. What worked to Ajit’s advantage
was that he was already the leader ofNCP’s legislative party and was agrass-roots leader.
Sources disclosed that Ajit Pawarwas also “entrusted” with the task ofderailing and delaying the NCP-Congress talks. “By making impossi-ble demands, Ajit would delay thenegotiations,” sources said.
In Delhi, Ajit Pawar reportedlydeployed NCP MP Sunil Tatkare tocontinue his secret talks with theBJP. Tatkare also began tapping theNCP MLAs and enticing them toswitch allegiance.
The issue that riled Ajit Pawar wasthe NCP-Congress’ decision to freezethe Chief Minister’s berth for theShiv Sena for five years. Ajit Pawarwanted the post on a rotational basis.
Sources revealed that as the meet-ings between Sena-NCP and Congressgained momentum, the BJP centralleadership got in touch with Ajit.
■ Page 88 :: PPawar tturned ddownModi’s rrequest
Ajit Pawar was doubleagent of ‘Pune man’
WTFadnavisAjit rebels, ditches uncle to back BJP govt
PRAMOD KKUMAR || DDCNEW DELHI, NOV. 23
The Shiv Sena, NCP and theCongress on Saturday night movedthe Supreme Court seeking thequashing of Governor Bhagat SinghKoshiyari’s decision to invite ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis to formgovernment and swearing in himand deputy CM Ajit Anantrao Pawar.
The hearing will take place today at11.30 am.
■ Full rreport oon PPage 77
SC to hearSena plea
SONU SSHRIVASTAVA || DDCMUMBAI, NOV. 23
Though the government has beenformed, it is still not clear if it has aclear majority.
The BJP has 105 MLAs and needs 40more to reach the majority mark.
According to sources, nearly 28 to30 NCP MLAs are with Ajit Pawar.
The BJP also has the support ofaround 15 independent MLAs.
■ Full rreport oon PPage 88
Ajit is in touchwith 30 MLAs
BHAGWAN PPARAB || DDCMUMBAI, NOV. 23
Governor B.S Koshyari has given adeadline of November 30 for ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis to provehis majority in the Vidhan Sabha,but the actual show of strength will be election of the AssemblySpeaker.
This will come first, and will deter-mine whether Fadnavis will continueas CM or not.
■ Full rreport oon PPage 88
Speaker pollis acid test
DEJA VU
THE PAWAR VS PAWAR BATTLEBHAGWAN PPARAB || DDC MUMBAI, NOV. 23
“Party and family splits.” This WhatsApp status postedby NCP MP Supriya Sule on Saturday said it all. Her postread: "Whom to trust? The biggest cheating in my life.What did I receive in lieu of the support and love I gaveto him? (sic)"
Later, an emotional Ms Sule broke into tears whilespeaking to the media.
It was not the first time that a dispute in the Pawar fam-ily came out into the open. Earlier there were murmursthat not all was well in the family headed by NCP chiefSharad Pawar. The signs of conflict were visible on sev-eral occasions.
■ Full RReport oon PPage 88
MOVE FROM KAKA’S PLAYBOOKAPRAMEYA RRAO || DDCMUMBAI, NOV. 23
In splitting the NCP, Ajit Pawar managed to repeat whathis uncle Sharad Pawar had done in July 1978 to becomeChief Minister. An election in 1978 threw a hungAssembly with the Janata Party emerging as the single-largest party at 99 seats. However, the two factions of theCongress together held over 130. With the support ofsmaller parties and independents, the uneasy post-pollcoalition enjoyed a wafer-thin majority of just four seats.
With an unsteady alliance the Vasantdada Patil-led gov-ernment was always on notice. That the governmentwould fall was never in doubt. The end was broughtabout by the then-37-year-old Sharad Pawar.
■ Full rreport oon PPage 88
Newly sworn-in Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis with hisdeputy Ajit Pawar in Mumbai on Saturday. — PTI
PG 7 | AJIT PAWAR SACKED
SATURDAY
2.30 am | Governorrecommends removalof President’s Rule.5.30 am | Ajit Pawar,Fadnavis arrive at RajBhavan.5.47 am | President’sRule is revoked.7.50 am | Governoradministers the oathof office Fadnavis,Pawar.8.40 am | Modi con-gratulates new CMand deputy CM.12.45 pm | SharadPawar, Sena hold ajoint press conference;vow to defeat theFadnavis governmentduring the floor test.7.30 pm | Ajit sackedas legislative chief.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena chief UddhavThackeray during a joint press conference in Mumbaion Saturday.
c m y k c m y k
Vol. 82 No. 324 Established 193848 PAGES PLUS A FREE COPY OF 16-PAGE SUNDAY CHRONICLE | `7.00deccanchronicle.com, facebook.com/deccannews
THE LARGEST CIRCULATED ENGLISH DAILY IN SOUTH INDIAHYDERABAD I SUNDAY I 24 NOVEMBER 2019
BHAGWAN PPARAB || DDC MUMBAI, NOV. 23
Politics in Maharashtra was turnedon its head as the BJP, in a midnightcoup, snatched triumph from theMaha Vikas Aghadi — Shiv Sena,NCP and Congress — by engineeringa split in the Sharad Pawar-led NCPon Saturday.
In a dramatic early morning devel-opment, Governor Bhagat SinghKoshyari swore in DevendraFadnavis as Chief Minister and rebelNCP leader Ajit Pawar, who had thesupport of some NCP MLAs, asdeputy Chief Minister.
The Governor gave the new govern-ment time till November 30 to proveits majority in the Assembly.
However, in another twist, the NCPclaimed that the majority of MLAsthat had initially gone with AjitPawar had returned to the party fold.
It sacked Ajit Pawar as the leader ofits legislative party in the eveningand in his place appointed JayantPatil, a trusted lieutenant of SharadPawar.
NCP MP Supriya Sule, daughter ofSharad Pawar, meanwhile appealedto Ajit Pawar to resign as deputyChief Minister.
Till Friday, the Sena-NCP-Congressalliance looked set to form the nextgovernment, with Sena chief UddhavThackeray as the likely ChiefMinister. It was not to be.
In the early hours of Saturday, theGovernor announced that thePresident’s Rule stood revoked. Itlaunched a series of developments
that not only rocked state politics butalso thwarted the Maha VikasAghadi bid to form a government.
The operation was carried out intotal secrecy and no one had a clue.
At about 8 am, nearly a dozen NCPMLAs accompanied Ajit Pawar to RajBhavan for the swearing-in. Theyincluded Bharat Shingane, SandeepKshirsagar, Sunil Bhusara,Balasaheb Patil, Daulat Daroda,Narhari Zirwal, Manikrao Kokate,Dilip Bankar, Sunil Tingre, SunilShelke, Anil Patil and Sunil Solanke.
Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar wereadministered their oaths in quicksuccession.
Later in the day, however, the NCPclaimed that most of those MLAs hadreturned.
“We had no idea of the reason wewere taken to Raj Bhavan,” Shinganeclaimed. “We stand with SharadPawar.” The Congress, the NCP andthe Sena criticised the Union govern-ment and the Governor for the hasteshown in administering the oath toFadnavis. Sharad Pawar describedAjit Pawar’s decision to join handswith the BJP as an act of indiscipline,and said Ajit and other party MLAswho switched sides would attractprovisions of the anti-defection law.
Claiming that the new BJP-led dis-pensation would not pass the floortest, he asserted that the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine had the num-bers and would ultimately form thegovernment.
“Sins are committed in the dark ofnight,” said Uddhav Thackeray.
SANJAY BBASAK || DDC NEW DELHI, NOV 23
A few days after November 8, whenDevendra Fadnavis resigned as ChiefMinister, a saffron leader in Puneswung into action. The “man fromPune” close to the BJP high com-mand in Maharashtra and to AjitPawar, made a call to the latter andbegan clandestine negotiations toform a BJP-Ajit Pawar government.BJP had identified Ajit Pawar as the“weak link” which “with a little pres-sure was likely to snap.”
The “Pune man” thus began themaster-plan for the midnight coupthat India woke up to on Saturdaymorning. The main hurdle was uncleSharad Pawar, who had begun acovert dialogue with the Shiv Sena.The second and the trickier issue waswinning over NCP MLAs and split-ting the party.
The “Pune man” and Ajit Pawarbegan tapping the MLAs individual-ly. What worked to Ajit’s advantage
was that he was already the leader ofNCP’s legislative party and was agrass-roots leader.
Sources disclosed that Ajit Pawarwas also “entrusted” with the task ofderailing and delaying the NCP-Congress talks. “By making impossi-ble demands, Ajit would delay thenegotiations,” sources said.
In Delhi, Ajit Pawar reportedlydeployed NCP MP Sunil Tatkare tocontinue his secret talks with theBJP. Tatkare also began tapping theNCP MLAs and enticing them toswitch allegiance.
The issue that riled Ajit Pawar wasthe NCP-Congress’ decision to freezethe Chief Minister’s berth for theShiv Sena for five years. Ajit Pawarwanted the post on a rotational basis.
Sources revealed that as the meet-ings between Sena-NCP and Congressgained momentum, the BJP centralleadership got in touch with Ajit.
■ Page 88 :: PPawar tturned ddownModi’s rrequest
Ajit Pawar was doubleagent of ‘Pune man’
WTFadnavisAjit rebels, ditches uncle to back BJP govt
PRAMOD KKUMAR || DDCNEW DELHI, NOV. 23
The Shiv Sena, NCP and theCongress on Saturday night movedthe Supreme Court seeking thequashing of Governor Bhagat SinghKoshiyari’s decision to invite ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis to formgovernment and swearing in himand deputy CM Ajit Anantrao Pawar.
The hearing will take place today at11.30 am.
■ Full rreport oon PPage 77
SC to hearSena plea
SONU SSHRIVASTAVA || DDCMUMBAI, NOV. 23
Though the government has beenformed, it is still not clear if it has aclear majority.
The BJP has 105 MLAs and needs 40more to reach the majority mark.
According to sources, nearly 28 to30 NCP MLAs are with Ajit Pawar.
The BJP also has the support ofaround 15 independent MLAs.
■ Full rreport oon PPage 88
Ajit is in touchwith 30 MLAs
BHAGWAN PPARAB || DDCMUMBAI, NOV. 23
Governor B.S Koshyari has given adeadline of November 30 for ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis to provehis majority in the Vidhan Sabha,but the actual show of strength will be election of the AssemblySpeaker.
This will come first, and will deter-mine whether Fadnavis will continueas CM or not.
■ Full rreport oon PPage 88
Speaker pollis acid test
DEJA VU
THE PAWAR VS PAWAR BATTLEBHAGWAN PPARAB || DDC MUMBAI, NOV. 23
“Party and family splits.” This WhatsApp status postedby NCP MP Supriya Sule on Saturday said it all. Her postread: "Whom to trust? The biggest cheating in my life.What did I receive in lieu of the support and love I gaveto him? (sic)"
Later, an emotional Ms Sule broke into tears whilespeaking to the media.
It was not the first time that a dispute in the Pawar fam-ily came out into the open. Earlier there were murmursthat not all was well in the family headed by NCP chiefSharad Pawar. The signs of conflict were visible on sev-eral occasions.
■ Full RReport oon PPage 88
MOVE FROM KAKA’S PLAYBOOKAPRAMEYA RRAO || DDCMUMBAI, NOV. 23
In splitting the NCP, Ajit Pawar managed to repeat whathis uncle Sharad Pawar had done in July 1978 to becomeChief Minister. An election in 1978 threw a hungAssembly with the Janata Party emerging as the single-largest party at 99 seats. However, the two factions of theCongress together held over 130. With the support ofsmaller parties and independents, the uneasy post-pollcoalition enjoyed a wafer-thin majority of just four seats.
With an unsteady alliance the Vasantdada Patil-led gov-ernment was always on notice. That the governmentwould fall was never in doubt. The end was broughtabout by the then-37-year-old Sharad Pawar.
■ Full rreport oon PPage 88
Newly sworn-in Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis with hisdeputy Ajit Pawar in Mumbai on Saturday. — PTI
PG 7 | AJIT PAWAR SACKED
SATURDAY
2.30 am | Governorrecommends removalof President’s Rule.5.30 am | Ajit Pawar,Fadnavis arrive at RajBhavan.5.47 am | President’sRule is revoked.7.50 am | Governoradministers the oathof office Fadnavis,Pawar.8.40 am | Modi con-gratulates new CMand deputy CM.12.45 pm | SharadPawar, Sena hold ajoint press conference;vow to defeat theFadnavis governmentduring the floor test.7.30 pm | Ajit sackedas legislative chief.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena chief UddhavThackeray during a joint press conference in Mumbaion Saturday.
ADITYA CCHUNDURU II DDCHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
A car flew off theBiodivresity flyover ataround 1 pm on Saturday,killing one woman andinjuring several others. Ared Volkwagen Polo car,driven by Milan Krishna(27), rubbed against therailing for several metresbefore falling over on tothe road. Even after it fellon to the ground, itsmomentum propelled itinto a tree opposite theshowroom, uprooting itcompletely and it, inturn, fell on onlookers ata bus stop and auto-stand.The car number was TS-09/EW-5665.
Satyaveni, a resident ofManikonda, was killed onthe spot, with her headreportedly severed due tothe collision with thetree. Her daughterPranitha, who was stand-ing beside her, escapedwith minor injuries.Nearby K. Kubra (23),who had come toMadhapur for a job inter-view, suffered pelvic frac-tures and P. Balu Nayak(38), an auto-driver wait-ing at the stand, suffereda fracture in his left foot,his auto hit by the car. Afew others — autodrivers
M. Pandu and M. KranthiKumar — suffered minorinjuries from the car’sshattered windscreen. Allof them were taken to thenearby CARE Hospital,Hitec City, for treatment.Also, some of vehiclesparked at a Nissan show-
room were damaged.Ashraf Ali, a food deliv-ery man, was waiting out-side a restaurant on theother side of the junction.“I first saw sparks flyingoff the railing in the dis-tance. After a few sec-onds, the car flew over
and fell on to the groundwith a loud bang. I ran tothe place. A tree wasuprooted entirely. Therewas blood everywhere,”he said.
Other eyewitnesses saidthat a sharp branch orroot of the tree crashedinto Satyaveni and killedher on the spot.Rajeswari, an witness tothe accident, said, “Istopped my scooter totake a call. Then I saw thecar zoom through the air.A large branch of theuprooted tree hit thewoman right in the face.”
Satyaveni and herdaughter had come to thelocality to search forhouses. Her husbandSomashekar, along withdaughters Pranitha andVani, live in Manikonda.The family is fromPentapadu in AndhraPradesh. They had movedto Hyderabad one and ahalf years ago whenPranitha found a job hereafter her MBA. Pranithais unemployed currently,but her younger sisterVani recently joined an ITcompany and the familywanted to move closer towork. Somashekar is anaccounts manager at arestaurant in Madhapur.
At the hospital, an
inconsolable Somashekarwas informing relativesof the tragedy. Saty-aveni’s body was taken toOsmania General Hos-pital for a post mortem. Afew hours after the acci-dent, Pranitha was dis-charged and the familyleft for Andhra Pradeshfor the last rites.
P. Balu Nayak recalled:“I was inside myautorickshaw when Iheard the crash. I saw thecar coming towards meand immediately got outof my vehicle. But the carhit my auto on the sideand its tyre rose upwardsand injured me in theleg,” he said. He is a resi-dent of Papireddy Nagarnear Chandanagar. Kub-ra, a native of Anantapurwas in shock.
Meanwhile, driverMilan Krishna’s condi-tion is said to be critical.Madhapur ACP, N. ShyamPrasad Rao, said, “He iscurrently under observa-tion in the ICU. We havenot taken his statementyet.” Rao said thatKrishna was over-speed-ing on the flyover. “It isclear from the CCTVfootage that he was driv-ing at over 100 kmph,” hesaid, adding the driverwas not drunk.
DC CCORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
Witnesses to the accident atBiodiversity flyover atGachibowli said it was asurreal sight to behold. “Fora second, I thought a movieshooting was going on. Thecar flew off the flyoveralmost as if in slowmotion,” said Prasad, a wit-ness standing on the otherside of the junction.
M. Kranthi Kumar, anauto-driver whose colleagueP. Balu Nayak suffered frac-tures, said, “It happened soquickly. Nayak was insidehis auto when the car camecrashing down. We man-aged to dodge it because wewere already on our feet butNayak could not.”
Witnesses also noted thatairbags in the car weredeployed, indicating thatMilan Krishna a resident ofJubilee Hills had, in fact,fastened his seat belt. “Ittook the paramedics morethan 10 minutes to get himout of the car. The puffed upairbag had to be cut awayfirst,” said a witness.
Milan Krishna has suf-fered multiple fractures andthere are abrasions. Thepolice and the officials ofthe municipal corporationhave spoken to him. He isunder treatment in theintensive care unit.
Meanwhile, scores ofpassersby gathered at theaccident site to see what thebrouhaha was about. A girlin a red kurta was walkingby and was saved by sec-onds as a little later and thecar would have hit her.Other women came running
around as no one couldunderstand what the soundwas all about.
Some students ran into thecompound to save them-selves from the loud noisethat they had heard. Onetyre of the car wheeled outand fell on the road due tothe impact. The car waslying upturned and the peo-ple ran towards it to see thedriver. People gathered inhuge numbers but it wasonly the paramedics whocould bring him out.
The GHMC and policeteams cleared off the debrisfrom the fallen tree. Theypointed at the blood on theground and discussedamong themselves how theflyover was ‘jinxed’. The fly-over being jinxed was beingdiscussed by many locals inthe area who are witnessingaccidents since its inaugu-ration. “Didn’t some peopledie while standing on it afew days ago? What’s wrongwith this flyover?” askedone. Another passerby,Manohar, said, “I will avoidthis flyover entirely. I won’tpass underneath it or useit.” Amjadullah Khan,another passerby, who com-mutes through the locationevery day, claimed it was thewinding ‘S’ shape of the fly-over causing the accidents.“The flyover is verystrangely built. It is veryfast-paced and there are alot of curves. I have seenmany people speeding overit,” he said.
Meanwhile, Twitter wasabuzz with discussion ofthe accident and the flyover.One dubbed the flyover ‘Bio-die-versity’.
‘I thought it wasa movie shoot’
PAGE
2CitySUNDAY | 24 NOVEMBER 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE
Sanitation worksMayor Bonthu Rammohan inspected sanitationworks of the Vijaya Cooperative Society ofMP&MLA Colony, says issues willl be addressed
BYSTANDER KILLED INFREAK CAR ACCIDENT
Speeding car skids off bio-diversity flyover near Gachibowli as it comes crashing down on to the road below, shocking onlookers.
Speeding car jumps off flyover, uproots tree, kills woman
DC CCORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
Cyberabad police annou-nced on Saturday even-ing that the Biodiversityflyover, the scene of amajor accident in theafternoon, would beclosed down for threedays. Commuters goingfrom Gachibowli tow-ards Raidurgam shouldnot go on the flyover.
People have also beenasked to not stand on theflyover after stoppingtheir bikes.
People have also beenasked to not overtake atcurves on the flyover asit is dangerous.
A release from theCyberabad DCP (Traffic)office blamed the driverof the car for the acci-dent. “Today’s accidenthas been solely becauseof over-speeding,” itread. The car was appar-ently being driven atover 104 kmph, when thespeed limit is only 40kmph. The release alsoprohibited people from
stopping on the flyover.During the last six days550 over-speeding chal-lans have been generatedon Biodiversity Flyoverby Cyberabad TrafficPolice (CTP) using thelatest technology andCCTVs.
Traffic police is contin-uously monitoring theflyover via CCTV andgiving instructions to thecitizens through the pub-lic addressing system(PAS). Today’s vehiclewas moving at 105kmphwhen the incident tookplace.
The traffic police hasadvised people to followself-discipline and notover-speed on the flyover.They have asked peopleto drive safely andstressed that civic behav-iour is an importantaspect of road safety.
Biodiversity flyoverto be shut for 3 days
MADDY DDEEKSHIT II DDCHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
Blatant violations in thedesign of the Biodiversitylevel two flyover byGreater Hyderabad Mun-icipal Corporation (GH-MC) has resulted in twoaccidents and three deathsin a span of three weeks.
On Saturday, a speedingcar travelling on thenewly-opened Biodiversityflyover lost control and felloff the bridge, damagingtwo cars on the roadbeneath. A woman waskilled, while six otherswere injured in the inci-dent. Though civic author-ities claimed that the fly-
over design was as pernorms, road transportexperts said that there arevarious faults in thedesign. The three lane, 990metre flyover has a steepcurve at 500 metres whilepassing the throughKhajaguda junction toMindspace junction.
According to IndianRoad Congress (IRC)guidelines, the three lanesshould maintain 3.5 metrex 3.5 metre width. Further,at steep curves, in order toprevent accidents, a widthof 3.5 x 5.5 should be main-tained. However, thesevital parameters werecompromised by the civicauthorities due to land
acquisition issues. Prof K.Lakshman Rao, director,centre of excellence ondisaster management,JNTUH college of engi-neering, Hyderabad, and
road transport expert,found fault with the designof the flyover which hasseveral geometrical issues.Rao said that due to theintersection of a vertical
and horizontal curve andasymmetric radius ofinner and outer curve,road accidents are boundto happen. Rao pointed outthat the height of the para-
pet wall was not up to themark. He said that thoughthe IRC guidelines suggesta 1.5 metres to two metresparapet wall, since severalother parameters werecompromised, the heightshould be raised to at leastfour meters to give confi-dence to commuters.
Highly placed sources inthe engineering wing ofGHMC told DeccanChronicle that it was notthe fault of commutersthat they travel beyond thespeed limit. They said thatpsychologically, com-muters who take the fly-over have to travel in hour-long traffic snarls fromMehdipatnam. By instinct,
any commuter after fight-ing heavy traffic, wouldspeed up and authoritieshave to set limits.
The per hour vehiculartraffic during non-peakhours is 6,000 and nonpeak hours is 12,000. Thestatement was endorsed bythe MAUD minister, K.T.Rama Rao, who tweeted:“Speed limit on the flyoveris 40 kmph and it's clearlyshown in sign boards. Thecar that lost control wasdriving at over 100 kmph,way beyond prescribedspeed limit. Nevertheless,innocent bystander's deathis tragic. We will rectifyany design issues too toprevent recurrence”(sic).
Faulty design reason for repeated mishaps■ Blatant violations in construction of Biodiversity flyover causes 3 deaths in 3 weeksJINXED | CURVES
(Top) Satyaveni, whowas killed on thespot when the largebranch of uprootedtree following thecar crash fell on her.(Left) Satyaveni’sdaughter Pranithawho is in a state ofshock after watchingher mother’s deathin front of her eyes.She was rushed tothe hospital withminor injuries.
EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT
■ PEOPLE mustexhibit more disci-pline and responsi-bility while drivingon public roads
Earlier, on November 10, asoftware employee from
Cognizant, in an inebriated state,killed two people and injured
four persons after he rammed hiscar into two vehicles before
knocking down two persons whowere taking selfies after stop-ping their bike on the flyover.
Citing this, the civic body put aselfie ban on the flyover.
The 990-meter long flyoveris a one way road and beginsat the DivyaSree Orion SEZand ends after theBiodiversity Junction, headingtowards IKEA. It is part of thestate government's StrategicRoad DevelopmentProgramme (SRDP) and wasconstructed at a cost of Rs69.47 crore.
CM KCR has `2,000cr for a secretariat,but does not have
Rs 40 crore for RTC — A. Revanth Reddy
Congress MP
SHORT TAKES
ISLAMIC SCHOOLSEEKS BOARDRECOGNITION
ATHER MMOIN || DDCHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
Mr Syed Umer Jaleel, Secre-tary, Telangana State Board ofIntermediate Education assu-red the State MinoritiesCommission that he willextend his help in gettingrecognition from Board ofIntermediate to the studentswho passed out from theJamiat-ul-Mominath, Hyde-rabad, an Islamic seminary ofgirls.
The Minorities Commissionwas dealing with a petitionfiled by the president of theinstitution Moualan Dr. HafizMohammed Mastan Ali, whohad stated that the institutionwas offering Islamic studiesalong with modern education.A commission led by its chair-man, Mr MohammedQamaruddin was hearing thepetitions on Saturday.
Dr. Mastan said that the stu-dents who completed thecourses offered by his institu-tion should be duly recognisedby the Board of Intermediateto allow the girls in pursuingmodern education.
Mr Umer Jaleel assured theCommission that he willextend his support in recogni-tion of the courses offered bythe said institution.
He also said that a letteraddressed to the governmentin this connection will soon besent out.
On the assurance of theSecretary Board ofIntermediate, the Commissionclosed the case.
COUNTER POINT
Max: 30.4OCMin: 17.4OC RH: 46%Rainfall: Nil
Forecast: Cloudy sky. Mistyor haze in the morning.
Max/Min temp. 29/17 ºC
WEATHER
ASTROGUIDEVikari; Dakshinayana
Tithi: Kartika Bahula Trayodashitill 1.06 am (Monday)
Star: Chitta till 12.47 pmVarjyam: 5.58 pm to 7.27 pm
Durmuhurtam: 4.06 pm to 4.51 pmRahukalam: 4.30 pm to 6 pm
HIJRI CALENDARRabi-ul-Awal 27,1441 AH
PRAYERSFajar: 5.23 am
Zohar: 12.13 pmAsar: 4.03 pm
Maghrib: 5.45 pmIsha: 6.56 pm
SUNSET TODAY 5.39 PMSUNRISE TOMORROW 6.26 AM
MOONRISE TODAY 3.55 AMMOONSET TOMORROW 4.02 PM
■ THE PPETITION soughtrecognition from theBoard of Intermediate for courses offered bythe institution to help girls studying in theinstitution to pursue higher studies after completing their courses
PAGE
3CitySUNDAY | 24 NOVEMBER 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE
Green ChallengeRachakonda commissioner Mahesh Bhagwatplanted saplings as part of the GreenChallenge, calls it a wonderful initiative
Employees are beingencouraged to carry
cloth bags to office tostop use of plastic
— E.V. Narsimha ReddyTSIIC managing director
IN BRIEFDOCS: 1 IN 4
DEATHS DUE TOHEART AILMENTDC CCORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
One in every four deaths in thecountry is due to cardiovascu-lar diseases because of chang-ing lifestyles, dietary habitsand lack of physical exercise.Incidence of younger peoplesuffering from heart issues isalso on the rise, as they have notime to exercise owing to theirwork schedules. Students tooare stressed owing to continu-ing exams and pay little atten-tion to exercise or sports.
Even those active in games,sports and active physicaltraining programmes requiresupervision of specialists, asthese may lead to internal mus-cle tear, which could cause aheart attack.
Incidentally, experts at arecent AdvancedInterventional CardiologyWorkshop in YashodaHospitals dwelt on the ‘chang-ing heart attack’ scene in thecountry, wherein more andmore young people are suffer-ing from heart issues, strokesand heart failure. Dr PavanGorukanti, a director atYashoda Hospitals, said, “It isunfortunate that those whostrive to be healthy and per-form regular exercises are alsosuccumbing to heart attacks.As such, fitness freaks, walk-ers, joggers and runners mustkeep an eye on their heart ratesbefore they start.”
EFLU stifles studentsolidarity with JNUStudents question cops presence on campusKANIZA GGARARI || DDCHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
Protests by students ofthe English and ForeignLanguages University(EFLU) were stalled bythe police leading to amajor showdown onSaturday afternoon.More than 200 studentshad gathered inside thepea-sized EFLU campusfor a dharna in solidari-ty with the students ofJawaharlal NehruUniversity in Delhi.
They wanted a peace-ful dharna but the policearrived on the scene andstated that it will not beallowed.
There were 10 police-men and they assertedthat the students couldnot conduct anyprotests.
Female students werealso seen arguing withthe police as they werenot being allowed tostand together.
The police insistedthat the crowd dispersebut the students stoodtheir ground andrefused to go away. Theyall gathered near thegate of the universityand stood with postersand banners.
They stood withposters 'EFLU standswith JNU,' 'Education is
Equal For All' and 'StopPrivatising Education.'They also raised theirvoice against the institu-tional murder ofFathima Lateef in IITMadras.
EFLU's joint actioncommittee wantedanswers from the admin-istration as to why thepolice was called insidethe campus when theyhad said the dharnawould be peaceful. Whywere the students nottold that police will beon campus?
Why is the police beingcalled regularly insidethe campus? In Octoberduring a meet the police
was inside the campusand they told studentsnot to gather in largenumbers.
The JAC demanded awritten explanationfrom the universityadministration as towhy the police is beingcalled in the campus.
Students of MaulanaAzad National UrduUniversity (MANUU)held a meeting onSaturday in solidaritywith the students ofJNU and with FathimaLateef.
They will be holding apublic meeting onSunday in support ofJNU students at 5 pm.
Students of English and Foreign Languages University hold protest on Saturday. — D C
A PIL has been filed beforethe High Court seeking thatit give directions to the stategovernment and GreaterHyderabad MunicipalCorporation (GHMC) torecover the losses sufferedbecause of Ramky EnviroProjects, which had default-ed after signing an MOU fortaking up waste manage-
ment, including collection ofgarbage in the city.Mr Saida Rao, a resident ofVanasthalipuram, allegesthat Ramky Enviro hadentered into an agreementwith GHMC in 2005 to gener-ate power from the garbagecollected. However, not onlydid it fail to take up powergeneration, but also gavepartnership to foreign com-panies in the proposed proj-ect. Mr Rao charged that the
government and the localauthority had transferredpublic money to the tune ofnearly `3,000 crore to theUSA-based KKR organiza-tion, which is a share holderin Ramky Enviro, for collec-tion of wastage in the twincities. The petitioner lament-ed that although the agree-ment holder had never both-ered to lift garbage, officialsand concerned authoritiesmaintained a stoic silence.
A fight at a cultural pro-gramme between twostudent groups has ledto a police case that hasbecome a bone of con-tention between the stu-dents union and theadministration ofMaulana Azad NationalUrdu University.
An FIR against thestudents in Raidurgampolice station has led tothe blaming of theadministration andproctor Prof AbulKalam for not support-ing the students in with-drawing the police case.
The cultural pro-gramme of Azad Daycelebrations led to afight between studentsof Jammu and Kashmirand Bihar. During thesinging contest, therewas teasing and hootingwhich led to a fight. Twostudents were injuredand admitted toHimagiri Hospital. Themedical expenses wereRs 23,000 for their treat-ment. Prof Kalampooled in the money forthe medical expenses.
Umer Faruq Quadri,president of MANNUStudents Union, said,“The two groups had afight on that night. Butit was sorted out. Theyhave reached a compro-
mise. Why must therebe a police case againstthe students? We havegone to the police sta-tion and submitted thata compromise has beenworked out. We wantthe administration tosupport us. Students areworried that their par-ents will be very angrywhen they come toknow of a police caseagainst them.” Studentsare also upset that thepolice had been calledinside the campus. Thesecurity guards toocould have managed thesituation. Why waspolice called, they ask.
A student, on condi-tion of anonymity, said,“There were twogroups. We do not knowwhich group went to thepolice first. But one ofthem went. Due to this,the police came back tothe other group askingfor a counter-complaint.Both of them filed com-plaints and now want itto be withdrawn whichthe police are not agree-ing to. The administra-tion want this to hangon the students' headsas it will ensure thatthere are no issuesinside the campus.”
But the students arenot happy.
They are now goingagainst the proctorProfessor Kalam.
PAGE
4CitySUNDAY | 24 NOVEMBER 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE
Singareni nextIf TRS wins civic polls, Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao will put up Singareni forsale, says BJP state chief Dr K. Laxman
I thank MoS G.Kishan Reddy for
restoring Amaravation the map of India
— N. Chandrababu NaiduFormer AP CM
IN BRIEF
Lorry mows downtwo women
Hyderabad: In a gruesomeincident, a woman and hermother-in-law died after a
lorry rammed into the two-wheeler they were on atRagannaguda along the
Nagarjuna Sagar Highway,on Saturday afternoon. The
victims were identified asHimaja (24) and Rama (56)
and were residents ofKothapet in Hyderabad.
They were heading to renewtheir driving licence.
Give road safetylessons in school Govt yet to include it in syllabus
S.A. IISHAQUI || DDCHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
Though there isdemand from a crosssection of people tohave road safety aware-ness in the school syl-labus for decades now,successive ruling gov-ernments have not ini-tiated any concretemeasures so far in thisdirection.
However, certain playschools in Hyderabadhave taking the initia-tive in teaching kidsbasic road safety tipsand traffic rules.
The play school man-agements felt that prac-tical demonstrations ofthe basic road rules andteaching them the dosand don’ts by creating amodel street of trafficrules to educate themwould have a greatimpact on the minds ofchildren.
Pushya Keerthi, a soft-ware employee, saidthat it is important toteach students theessentials: traffic sig-nals, walking on zebracrossings, driving in alane, driving on theright side of the road,driving with a helmetand seatbelt, parkingetc given current trafficand road conditions.
Recently when a city-based traffic activistfiled an online petitionto the union humanresource developmentministry demandinginclusion of traffic edu-cation as a mandatorysubject in the schoolcurriculum, scores of
netizens supported theplea. The petitioner,Kiran Kumar Goli, aresident of Kukatpally,said doing so wouldensure that future gen-erations would be edu-cated in traffic disci-pline. Transport minis-ter V. Prashanth Reddyin seminar held about acouple of months ago inthe city on Road Safetyand Audit Improvementof Traffic Safety, saidthat the traffic educa-tion should be madepart of the syllabi inschools and colleges.
The minister said that“By traffic education, Imean, as a citizen andas an individual in soci-ety knowing whatimportant precautionsneed to be taken withregard to traffic rules. Ifthese rules are taughtat a young age, it wouldhelp society. Peoplewould also get educatedby the publicity cam-paign through adver-tisements, engagingcelebrities and throughsocial media,” headded. The ministersaid technology hasincreased the speed ofvehicles and it hasdecreased journey timeand increased life risks.
T.S.S. SSIDHARTH || DDCHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
Acting on credible informa-tion, the Abdullapurmetpolice along with the SHEteams, on Saturday arrest-ed two persons K. PrasadaRao (51) and his wife K.Saradhi (50), for allegedlyraping a minor severaltimes and inflicting bodilyhurt.
Rao is said to be a head-master of Janet GeorgeResidential School and hiswife K. Saradhi was thehostel’s warden where theminor was studying.
According to the policewho received a complaintfrom the victim at 9 pm on
Friday, the victim statedthat she had joined JanetGeorge Memorial School atBatasingaram, it all startedin the year 2015 when thevictim was studying inclass eight.
“The victim was sleepingin the hostel. The accused,being school headmasterand hostel warden respec-tively, had access to enterher room in the hostel.Upon entering, they wouldtouch her inappropriatelyand force her into sexual
intercourse several times.This was repeated once aweek,” said a police officer. The duo went on toharass her and force her todo household chores likewashing clothes and clean-ing the house. amongst oth-ers. If she refused to dowork, they used to hit her.
Due to their harassment,she left the school in Junethis year. The victim alsosaid that they used to treatother students of the schoolin a similar manner.
Upon arrest, on Saturday,the duo confessed to thecrimes. They have beenbooked under the relevantsections of the Indian PenalCode.
Headmaster and wardenarrested on rape charges
■ ■ THE VVICTIM said thatother students of theschool were also treatedin a similar manner.
Pushya Keerthi Software employee
Children being imparted lessons on traffic signals and zebra crossing atKangaroo Kids preschool at Shaikpet.
NO END TOBREAKING OFTRAFFIC RULES SANJAY SSAMUEL PPAUL| DDCHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
It is a usual sight on theroads. Signal-jumpingand STOP line-crossingare the favourite pas-times of drivers in thetwin cities.
Drivers and riders for-get the rules and com-mit these offences withimpunity and alarmingregularity. There are30,038 registered casesof signal-jumping till2019 October and 70,414.STOP line-crossingcases booked tillOctober 2019. Thesecases might go up byanother 20% to 25% inthe last quarter of thisyear. In 2018, signal-jumping cases stood at18525 and STOP line-crossing cases stood at141533.
“Our CCTV camerasare fixed at all junc-tions. Based on that TVfootage we issue chal-lans. In cases of signal-jumping, our postedofficer conveys the mes-sage through the wire-less, We see to it thatthe offender is caughtat the next signal,” a senior traffic officialsaid.
“Hyderabad CityPolice is trying to edu-cate its citizens in traf-fic rules and trafficsafety, we are workingto provide a better roadexperience to the com-muters,” said anothertraffic official.
TRAFFICMESS
Woman tries toend life, rescued DC CCORRESPONDENT HYDERABAD, NOV. 23
A 28-year-old womanattempted suicide inHussain Sagar Lake butwas rescued by an alerthome guard on duty.
According to the police,the woman got downfrom an auto on Saturdaymorning near the oldLove Hyderabad spotwithout wearing anyfootwear. Home guard,Kameshwar Rao, whowas posted there, sensedsomething was wrong.When she reached tooclose to the railing, hewent and stopped her.However, she pushed himaside and jumped intothe lake.
Immediately, the homeguard got down into thelake and pulled her out.She was then rushed in a108 ambulance to theGandhi Hospital, whereshe is undergoing treat-ment.
Lake police stationinspector B. Dhanalaxmisaid the woman took theextreme step as she wasbeing regularly beatenup by her husband.There were marks ofbeating on her body.
“We will send her forcounselling by our
department,” the inspec-tor stated.
Dr Radhika Acharya,clinical psychologist,said, “When there isphysical abuse, there willbe emotional abuse too.In such cases, the victimdevelops feelings of help-lessness, hopelessnessand worthlessness,referred to as CognitiveTriad. The victim’s per-ception becomes totallynegative. During suchtimes, close friends andfamily members play acrucial role. They mustnot leave the victim alone.”
10th DEATH ANNIVERSARY“The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away;blessed be the name of the Lord” Job 1:21
Late Mr. CONA PERMANANDAMD.O.B: 22.07.1940 D.O.D: 24.11.2009
You left us beautiful memories.Your is still our guide. We miss you
Inserted by: Wife, Children& Grand Children
(S/1920/D01286)
FOND REMEMBRANCE12th ANNIVERSARY
Shri CHAVVA GOPAL SWAMYDate of Death: 24-11-2007
Your memories will be always withus throughout our lives.
Inserted by:Sons, Daughter, Son-in-law,
Daughters-in-law, Grand Children& Great Grand Children
(S/1920/D01273)
IN LOVING MEMORY OF YOUR4th DEATH ANNIVERSARY
IN HEAVEN
M.A. KRISHNAFounder Chairman - Kasturba High SchoolIt is on this unfateful day that you left aspace in our lives and ascended to Heaven.The biggest and brightest star in the sky isyou Dad. God has you in his arms, we havein our heart. Continue showering yourblessings and guidance upon us.
Miss You DaddyFrom: Kasturba Family
(S/1920/D01291)
SAD DEMISE
THONDAN. P.O. KUPPUSWAMY MUDALIARSenior Congress Leader &Retired S.C. Rly. EmployeeDate of Death: 23-11-2019
D.No. 9-2-264, Regimental Bazaar, Sec’bad.Cremation on 24-11-2019 at
SABGANI SRIKANTHDOB: 14.06.1973 DOD: 16.11.2019Your life was a blessing, your memory atreasure. You are loved beyond words &missed beyond measure.10th Day Ceremony will be held on25.11.2019, @ 12 noon at ResidenceHimayath Nagar, Swetha Apts.
Inserted by: Alexander Salons9849072445, 9347267117
(S/1920/D01287)
KOLAN PRABHAKAR REDDYGem. Sec. Janata Dal-S.02.06.1962 - 30.10.2019
ASN. REDDY (God Servant)Rehaboth Prayer House Ananthapur AP.
H/o A. Mary StellaDOB: 09.11.1973 DOD: 22.11.2019
Funeral Service at Boiguda,Sec’bad. on 24.11.2019 at 4:00 p.m.
Inserted by:Wife, Children & Family Members
Mob: 6281033790(CA-3075)
GOLD WORTH `2 CR SEIZED,
3 ARRESTEDDC CCORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
Acting on specific informa-tion, officials of theDirectorate of RevenueIntelligence (DRI), Hyderabad,seized 4 kgs of smuggled goldworth around `2 crore at Secunderabad andarrested three persons.
On Thursday, the officialssearched a residence at EastMaredpally next to ShenoyNursing Home and found 40pieces of smuggled gold in agreen-coloured bag kept in avehicle parked inside thepremises, a DRI official saidon Saturday.
ANANTPUR PASTORSTABBED TO DEATH,KILLERS AT LARGEDC CCORRESPONDENT HYDERABAD, NOV. 23
A 46-year-old pastor fromAnantapur was murderedby a few unidentified per-sons, on Friday night.
Sub-inspector ofGachibowli P. Rameshsaid, “The victim was iden-tified as oneSatyanarayana Reddy, whoworks as a pastor in achurch. He had visited thecity for some real estatework in Hafeezpet. He wasattacked when he was trav-elling on his bike towardsHafeezpet, at 11 pm bysome unknown personswith knives.” The killesare yet to be identified andapprehended.
PAGE
5PoliticsSUNDAY | 24 NOVEMBER 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE
Black DayFormer Congress MP V. Hanumantha Rao saysMaharashtra Governor’s decision on the formation ofthe state government is a black day for democracy
Maharashtra incidentis a clear proof of the
BJP’s blackmailingpolitics
— Suravarm Sudhakar Reddy,CPI national leader
SHORT TAKES
WAKF BOARDPETITIONS GHMC
ON LAND-GRABATHER MMOIN || DDCHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
The TS Wakf Board has urgedthe GHMC commissioner tocancel the building permitgranted to one Zaheer Khan inrespect of a Wakf property atNarayanguda.
Under directions from boardchairman Mohammed Sale-em, its CEO Abdul Hameedhas written to the civic bodystating that the Sir NizamatJung, Madina Mansion, Madi-na Bagh, Sakeena Manzil, Fa-qeer Bagh, Zamima MadinaSarai, inside Madina Mansion,Narayanguda, is a registeredand notified wakf propertypublished in AP Gazette.There are different propertiesto an extent of 10,000 squareyards, the missive says.
The board chairmanreceived information aboutthe ongoing construction onthe Wakf property bearingMunicipal No. 3-5-1099 on anextent of 926 square yards byone Zaheer Mohammed Khan.He immediately sent a team ofboard’s officials, who reportedthat construction activitieswere underway and the saidperson had succeeded inobtaining permission for con-struction of a building fromGHMC.
Mr Saleem said stern actionwill be taken against theencroachments.
VRS likely for RTC staffKCR may spring a surprise; all eyes on labour court verdictS.N.C.N. AACHARYULU || DDCHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
Chief Minister K. Chan-drasekhar Rao is likelyto take cue from theprecedent set by theMadhya Pradesh govern-ment. Translated, thisamounts to announcingVoluntary RetirementScheme (VRS) to RTCemployees.
With the High Courtgiving the green signalon privatisation of 50 percent of (5,100) RTCroutes, the governmenthas taken the exercise inthis regard. Once 50 percent RTC routes are pri-vatised, there will be nowork for half of the pres-ent strength of 50,000employees.
If Mr Rao decides toallow the striking emplo-yees to resume duty afterthey call it off, he mayannounce VRS. Sourcessaid that it will be onlyafter Labour Court judg-ment that KCR will take acall on whether to allowthe employees to taketheir duty or not. Thestate government hasbeen maintaining thatthe strike was illegal.
One is not sure about thelikely decision of Mr Raoif the Labour Court deci-sion comes in favour ofthe government.
At present there are10,460 buses with TS RTCand of them 2,103 privateand 2,609 RTC vehiclesare in a stage of con-demn. The state govern-ment has taken the deci-sion to privatise routesas the RTC is not in aposition to add new fleet.
Meanwhile, officialsare working out detailson the financial burdenon the government ifVRS is announced.
The question is howmany employees willcome forward to takeVRS. If a majority ofthem are not keen on theoffer, the Corporationhas to pay salarieswhether they have workor not. It should be notedthat the governmentstopped recruitments inRTC a long time back.
Officials point out thaton an average 4,000employees retire everyyear. At this rate, it willtake close to six years for50% of the work-force toretire.
Civic polls: TS told to fileplea replies individually
Staff desperateto return to work
VUJJINI VVAMSHIDHARA| DDCHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
Justice A. RajashekarReddy of TelanganaHigh Court has told thestate government to fileindividual counters,rather than a commoncounter on all writ peti-tions filed seeking a stayon municipal elections.
The court was dealingwith a batch of 77 peti-tions, which have beenpending for four months
after the court issuedinterim orders puttingoff elections to 75 muni-cipalities until compila-tion of the municipalrules before holding thepolls.
The court opined thatwhen it issued the inter-im orders based on factsof each petition, it wou-ld not be appropriate forthe state government tofile a common counter tothe 77 different petitionsfiled with regard to the75 municipalities. The
batch of petitions hadbeen filed last July alleg-ing that the entire pre-poll process prior toholding the electionshad not been carried outas per the TelanganaMunicipal Rules. At thattime, the single bench ofJustice P. Naveen Raohad stayed issuance ofcivic poll notificationsfor the 75 municipali-ties. It directed the gov-ernment to issue notifi-cations only after follow-ing the due process.
PANCHAYATSTO TAKE LOANFROM BANKS
Surgical strike ‘soon’ in state politics too: LaxmanDC CCORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
TS BJP president K.Laxman on Saturday said
there will soon be a surgi-cal strike in Telanganastate politics too in keepingwith the sentiments of peo-ple of the state.
“Bahubali CM KCR can-not stand the nuclear forceof PM Modi,” he saidlaunching the works for theBJP office in Mancherial.
DC CCORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
Discontent and fears oftheir future are drivingthe striking employees ofTSRTC to the wedge afterbeing reduced to virtualnon-entities by the stategovernment. Eventhough the strike is los-ing steam by the day, andeven as employees arewishing to resumeduties, the RTC JAC isholding its ground thatthe protest was verymuch on.
There has been gradualchange in the tone of theemployees. From theiroriginal 40 demands thatwere announced whenthe strike began 50 daysago, the demands are get-ting reduced with themost being the maindemand. Unable to bearthe silence of the KCRgovernment, the employ-
ees set aside the demandfor merger with the stategovernment.
However, there hasbeen no response fromthe government, whatso-ever. Ironically, whenworkers across the statestarted queuing up attheir respective depots tojoin duty, the depot man-agers are sending themback saying that thereare no instructions.
Meanwhile, RTC JACchairman AswathamaReddy said that theirstrike will continue. Hesaid that they will sendthe decision to the MD.He said that they are hop-ing Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao willtake a good decision.
Mr Reddy said that onSunday, workers willform a human chain atdepots while women willtake up protest pro-grammes at Imlibun.
DC CCORRESPONDENTNIZAMABAD, NOV.23
To improve sanitation invillages, gram panchay-ats will soon have thenecessary infrastruc-ture to carry out works.
The state governmenthas decided to purchaseon loan, tractors,tankers and bulldozersfor all gram panchayats.It is for the first timethat gram panchayatswill avail loan facilityfrom banks.
Mumbai, Nov. 23: Thepolitical events ofSaturday that led to theBJP making a comeback topower in Maharashtrawith the help of AjitPawar, and his as-yetunspecified number ofMLAs, also led to a missingperson complaint beingfiled for an MLA from theSharad Pawar-led party.
Shahapur NCP MLADaulat Daroda went ‘miss-ing’ after reaching RajBhavan in south Mumbaithe morning whereFadnavis and Ajit Pawartook oath as ChiefMinister and deputy CM,respectively.
Daroda had left his con-stituency, in neighbouringThane, along with his sonKaran on Friday night andhas since been unreach-able after reachingMumbai, said an official.
Former MLA PandurangBarora approachedShahapur police stationand filed a missing com-plaint about Daroda, headded.
— PTI
PAGE
6NationSUNDAY | 24 NOVEMBER 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE
Right speakUnion minister Nitin Gadkari sayshe had earlier said anything couldhappen in cricket and politics
DC CCORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, NOV. 23
The National StockExchange (NSE) hasaccused C. Parthasarathy-led Karvy Stock BrokingLimited (KSBL) of swin-dling nearly `2,000 crore bymaking fraudulent andunauthorised transactionsthrough both off-marketand market dealings. Thefraudulent transactionswere made by Karvyallegedly without theknowledge of its clientsfrom April 2016 toSeptember 2019.
Based on the findings ofthe NSE investigation, cap-ital market regulatorSecurities and ExchangeBoard of India (Sebi) onSaturday issued an exparte interim order ban-ning Hyderabad-basedbroking house fromonboarding new clients tillfurther notice. It has alsobanned Karvy from actingon behalf of its clientsexercising its power ofattorney.
An ex parte order is typi-cally issued without givingan opportunity to theaccused to explain his sideof the story.
Such orders are issued inmatters that require urgentattention. The Sebi hasasked Karvy Stock Brokingto explain its version with-in 21 days. On its part, theNSE has appointed a foren-sic auditor to examine indetail the cases of misuseof client funds and securi-ties by Karvy StockBroking.
While issuing the interimorder, the Sebi reproducedparts of the NSE’s prelimi-nary report that levels seri-ous allegations of misap-propriating client’s moneyagainst Karvy StockBroking.
“KSBL credited the fundsraised by pledging of clientsecurities to six of its ownbank accounts instead ofits client accounts and fur-ther has not reported thesesix own bank accounts toExchange which isrequired to be reportedunder the Sebi provisions,”the market regulator saidin its order.
“Prima facie a netamount of `1,096 crore hasbeen transferred by KSBLto its group company i.e.Karvy Realty PrivateLimited between fromApril 1, 2016 to October 19,2019,” the Sebi order claimsciting the NSE report.
The exchange also
claimed that Karvy StockBroking has sold excesssecurities, which are avail-able in its DP account tothe tune of `485 crorethrough nine relatedclients till May 31, 2019. Ithas also allegedly trans-ferred excess securities tosix out of these nine relat-ed clients to the tune of`162 crore till May 31, 2019.
The NSE report alsoclaims that Karvy StockBroking has transferredsecurities worth `27.8crore, through off-markettransactions, from the ben-eficial owner accounts of156 clients who have notexecuted a single tradewith them. Apart from this,securities worth `116.3crore were observed tohave been transferred from291 clients who have nottraded with KSBL sinceJune 1, 2019.
“On subsequent verifica-tion, it was observed thatsecurities worth `257.08crore, pledged on behalf of4 clients out of the afore-said 9 clients, wereunpledged during June 1,2019 to August 22, 2019 andsecurities worth of `217.85crore were recovered byKSBL from 4 out of the said9 client accounts,” the NSEreport claimed.
“KSBL have also pur-chased securities in 5 out ofthe respective 9 clientaccounts amounting to`228.07 crore during theperiod from June 1, 2019 toSeptember 8, 2019. KSBLhad undertaken the recov-ery/purchase of securitiesto recoup the securitiesshortfall,” it added.
SHAHAPUR NCPMLA GOES ‘MISSING’
INVESTORS RATTLED BY FRAUDFC BBUREAUMUMBAI, NOV. 24
Investors are rattled by the`2000-crore fraud uneart-hed at Karvy StockBroking by the market reg-ulator Sebi which hasbanned the firm from tak-ing any fresh clients.
The Sebi action in one ofthe biggest frauds in equi-ty segment in the recenttimes comes in the wake ofan inspection report fromNSE. There were also com-plaints filed by clients ofKarvy Stock Broking withthe Prime Minister’s Office(PMO) and the FinanceMinistry.
According to experts, thefull extent of the fraudcould be established onlyafter Sebi’s forensic auditthat could find out theextent of alleged misuse ofclient funds.
Sebi has also askedexchanges and deposito-ries to initiate disciplinaryproceedings against thebrokerage firm.
Sebi said the unautho-rised use of clients’ fundscreates a serious doubtover the conduct andintegrity of KSBL. In itsinterim order, the marketregulator has barredKarvy from taking anymore clients in respect ofits stock broking business.It has directed depositoriesto monitor the flow ofmoney from clients’accounts of Karvy.
In the 12-page order, Sebimember Ananta Baruasaid Karvy, despite not hav-ing any legal rights to cre-ate a pledge on these secu-rities and generate funds,the firm did so to the tuneof 2,000 crore.
“Even if the client securi-ties were pledged, it shouldbe (used) only for meetingthe obligation of therespective clients,” theorder said.
The order said an NSEinspection showed Karvyhad transferred a netamount 1,096 crore to itsgroup firm Karvy Realtybetween April 2016 andOctober 2019.
The order said an NSEinspection showed Karvyhad transferred a netamount `1,096 crore to itsgroup firm Karvy Realtybetween April 2016 andOctober 2019. The broker-age also sold pledged clientshares via off-markettransfer as its own in fiveout of nine client accountsamounting to `228.07 crorein 2019, and transferredstocks worth `27.8 crorefrom 156 clients, whilenone of these trades wereexecuted or authorized bythe clients. Sebi has direct-ed NSDL and CDSL not toact upon any instructiongiven by Karvy in pur-suance of power of attor-ney given by its clients.
Fraudulent transactions made by Karvy from April 2016 to Sept. 2019
AIMIM may gain ground lost by Sena, Cong YOJNA GGUSAI || DDC NEW DELHI, NOV 23
Maharashtra’s politicalthriller continued onSaturday even as in anearly morning develop-ment the BJP’s DevendraFadnavis took oath as theChief Minister along withNCP supremo SharadPawar’s nephew, AjitPawar, as his deputy chiefminister, contrary to whatwas being predicted till lateFriday evening.
The NCP supremo, whohad been holding talkswith the Congress and theBJP’s estranged ally, ShivSena, over possible govern-ment formation headed bySena supremo UddhavThackeray, claimed it wasAjit Pawar’s “personaldecision” and that the NCP“does not support orendorse this decision ofhis.”
However, many found ithard to believe that theNCP supremo did not havea clue as what was going onwithin his own outfit.
By Saturday evening, AjitPawar was replaced byJayant Patil as the NCP leg-islature party leader. Now,only a floor test will prove
whether or not MrFadnavis will continue asMaharashtra’s chief minis-ter, a post that he held in the last government andover which the BJP’s ties with the Shiv Senasoured.
As allegations and count-er allegations flew thickand fast throughout the dayand the BJP came underfire for betraying people’smandate and trying to forman “illegitimate govern-ment,” the BJP said that ithad the “electoral andmoral” mandate to formthe government. Hittingback, the BJP said those
who were “dead opposed”to each other had joinedhands to “grab” power.
Though it remains to beseen whether a Fadvavis-led government continuesor not, many inMaharashtra political cir-cles are of the view that theShiv Sena and Congressare expected to lose signifi-cantly as both are consid-ered “ideological adver-saries.”
On the other hand,Asaduddin Owaisi-ledAIMIM is expected to gainthe ground lost by theCongress as both theCongress and NCP seem to
have lost the “secular tag”after their attempt to allywith the Sena, known forits firebrand Hindutvastance.
After Saturday’s develop-ment, rift within the Senahas also widened as manyof its MLAs were againstallying with the Congressand the NCP. For the BJP,the Sena losing its corevotebank over its “changein ideology,” means politi-cal gain.
Despite the Sena’s acerbicstatements against the BJPtop brass since October 24,when election resultsthrew a hung Assembly, theBJP, sources said, had beensending out feelers to theSena to patch things up tillas recently as November 21,but making it clear that theChief Minister’s post wasnon-negotiable.
Sources disclosed that theBJP top brass was wary ofits now estranged ally, ShivSena, even before the twohad finalised the pre-pollseat-sharing formula.
The BJP, in fact, had acti-vated its “Plan B” (in caseSena decides to part ways)a week before voting forAssembly polls took place.
Feedback from the
ground suggested that aresurgent NCP could dentthe BJP’s poll prospectsand it was then when theBJP top brass opened backchannel talks with seniorNCP leaders for a possiblepost-poll alliance.
Political circle wereabuzz when PM NarendraModi praised the NCP onthe first day of the wintersession of Parliament andthen held more than a half-an-hour long meeting withthe NCP supremo to dis-cuss “agriculture relatedissues.”
On Friday, the BJP’sMaharashtra election in-charge and national gener-al secretary BhupendraYadav and an RSS leader, itwas learnt, met Ajit Pawar,after which Mr Fadvavishad a talk with BJP nation-al president and Unionhome minister Amit Shah,who gave a go-ahead toFadnavis.
Expressing confidencethat the BJP-led govern-ment enjoys the support ofa majority of MLAs, Unionminister Ravi ShankarPrasad asserted thatFadnavis will give a “sta-ble, honest and effectivegovernment” to the state.
Scam may be rootedin real estate fundsDC CCORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, NOV. 22
Speculative investment,especially in real estate,proved to be nemesis forseveral companies led byTelugus, including SatyamComputer Services Ltd.These falls reaffirm thelove of Telugus for land —the most scarce commodity— and anything related toit. Not miss that league, the`2,000 crore fraud in KarvyStock Broking, led byanother Telugu, appears tobe rooted in real estate asover half of the amountthat NSE accused it ofswindling from its clientsaccounts found its way toits realty arm — KarvyRealty Private Limited.
The NSE report and Sebiorder have been silent onthe application of thesefunds by Karvy Realty.
Karvy Personal Wealthattracts high networthindividuals (HNIs) toinvest in high risk cate-gories like real estate proj-ect financing for interestpayments/dividends.
Karvy Personal Wealthon the other hand getshigher commission. Theinvestments marshalled bythis particular arm haveseen many defaults due tofinancial woes of the realestate companies after the2016 demonetisation.
Several HNIs had report-edly suffered huge losses.
Almost of a half themoney was diverted byKarvy Stock Broking from2016 and 2019.
A few months ago, somepeople had lodged a compli-ant with Bengaluru policeagainst Karvy PersonalWealth after the builderdefaulted on its repaymentcommitments.
According to the com-plainants, the paymenthave become irregularafter the demonetisation.Though the lending wasbacked collaterals in formof undivided land share,they claim that the build-ing was not completed bythe builder due to cashcrunch, which renderedthe collaterals useless.
NSE accuses Karvy of swindling `2,000 crore
Private sector banks may be in the dockDC CCORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, NOV. 22
Several private sectorbanks that have exposureto Karvy Stock Brokingmay be in trouble followingthe market regulator Sebiunearthing a `2,000 crorefraud at the firm.
Private sector lendersICICI Bank, HDFC Bank,Axis Bank and DBS have
exposure to Karvy StockBroking.
ICICI had given `875crore loan to Karvy StockBroking, HDFC Bank hasan exposure of `200 crore,Axis Bank has an exposureof `85 crore, DCB Bank hasan exposure of `55 croreand IndusInd Bank has anexposure of `105 crore.
There were paymentdefaults occurring at
Karvy Stock Broking andits clients filed complaintswith the Prime Minister’sOffice (PMO), the FinanceMinistry and Sebi. Theunauthorised use ofclients’ funds creates aserious doubt over the con-duct and integrity ofKSBL, said Sebi.
According to mediareports, one of the majorreasons for Karvy’s down-
fall is its rapid diversifica-tion. In the last 10 years,Karvy entered into a slewof businesses includingtelecom record manage-ment services, data analyt-ics, and manufacturing ofsmart IT devices and con-solidated all domestic voicebusiness under KarvyDigiKonnect Ltd. Last year,it acquired HCL ServicesLtd.
■ ■ NOT MMISS TTHATLEAGUE, the `2,000 crorefraud in Karvy StockBroking appears to berooted in real estate asover half of the amountthat NSE accused it ofswindling from its clientsaccounts found its way toits realty arm — KarvyRealty Private Limited.The NSE report and Sebiorder have been silent onthe application of thesefunds by Karvy Realty.
HIGHLIGHTS SEBI ORDERA net amount of `1,096
crore has been transferredby Karvy Stock Broking to its
group company i.e. KarvyRealty Private Limited
between from April 1, 2016 toOctober 19, 2019
Sold excess securities,which are available in its DP account to the tune of`485 crore through nine related clients till May 31,
2019.
Transferred excess securities to 6 out of these 9related clients to the tune of `162 crore till May 31,
2019.
Transferred securities worth `27.8 crore, off-mar-ket, from the beneficial owner accounts of 156 clients
who have not executed a single trade with them.
Securities worth `116.3 crore were transferred from291 clients who have not traded with Karvy Stock
Broking since June 1, 2019.
Karvy StockBroking cannotonboard newclients
Depositors —NSDL and CDSL —will not honour anytransactions madeby Karvy StockBroking by execut-ing a power ofattorney given byits clients until fur-ther notice.
The depositorieswill have to moni-tor transactionsbeing done byaccounts related toKarvy StockBroking.
NCP MLA and Sharad Pawar’s grandson Rohit Pawarleaves in a bus after a meeting with party MLAs inMumbai on Saturday. — PTI
Mumbai, Nov. 23: NCPchief Sharad Pawar and hisMP daughter Supriya Suleshould join the Union gov-ernment and help strength-en the country with theirexperience, Union ministerRamdas Athawale said onSaturday, which was markedby Ajit Pawar’s coup to jointhe BJP in forming a govern-
ment in Maharashtra.“I call upon Sharad Pawar
and Sule to join the cabinet.Pawar Saheb can be givensome crucial portfolio andwith his vast knowledge andexperience, he can con-tribute to strengthen thegovernment and the coun-try,” Athawale said.
— PTI
NCP CHIEF, HIS DAUGHTER SHOULD JOIN UNION GOVT, SAYS ATHAWALE
DC CCORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, NOV. 23
The Congress Partylashed out at theBharatiya Janata Party(BJP) on Saturday afterDevendra Fadnavis wassworn in as the ChiefMinister by MaharashtraGovernor at 7.30 am, alongwith Ajit Pawar of theNationalist CongressParty (NCP) as the DeputyChief Minister.
Addressing a press con-ference, Congressspokesperson RandeepSingh Surjewala said theBJP “scared” an “oppor-tunist” — Ajit Pawar whohas joined hands with thesaffron party — and actedas a “contract killer” ofdemocracy.
The party further wenton to say that the allianceof Shiv Sena, NCP andCongress is intact and willdefeat the Fadnavis gov-ernment on the floor ofthe House.
Senior Congress leaderAhmed Patel, speakingwith reporters in Mumbai,said, “The BJP hascrossed all limits ofshamelessness. Our threeparties we will defeat thegovernment in the floortest. We will explore allpolitical and legaloptions.”
He also added that thelist of MLAs submitted tothe Governor by AjitPawar was “not verified”and the Governor did notspeak to anyone else.
Attacking MaharashtraGovernor, Bhagat SinghKoshiyari, the Congresstermed him the “hit-man”of Union home ministerAmit Shah.
“The governor ofMaharashtra, instead ofprotecting his constitu-tional duties, has acted as
a hit-man for the homeminister, Amit Shah. Tosell the mandate given bypeople of India by auction-ing the trust of the legisla-tures has now become anorm for the BJP postKarnataka, ArunachalPradesh, Meghalaya, Goa,Uttaranchal, Haryana andManipur. Now the BJP isseeking to trample uponConstitution of India andits mandate in a similarfashion in Maharashtra,”Mr Surjewala said.
On Friday evening, theMaharashtra Governorcancelled his weekend tripto Delhi for a three-day
conference and decided tostay in Mumbai.
For the 7.50 am oath cere-mony, President’s rule wasrevoked at 5.47 am after asignoff by President RamNath Kovind.
According to reports,there was no meeting ofthe Union Cabinet, as isthe practice in such deci-sions. The Prime Ministercan clear a decision with-out his Cabinet in cases of“extreme urgency orunforeseen contingency,”according to rules.
A total of 10 questionswere put up by MrSurjewala to the BJP on
Saturday. These includewhen the BJP is going tostake claim to form thegovernment, how manylegislators signed the let-ter of support, how werethese signatures verifiedin an hour?
Mr Surjewala furtherasked, “We would like toknow when did theGovernor inform the cen-tral government to removePresident’s rule? Then,what time did the UnionCabinet meet and recom-mend the removal ofPresident’s rule and whendid the President acceptthese recommendations?”
Alliance intact, will defeatFadnavis in floor test: Cong
PRAMOD KKUMAR || DDCNEW DELHI, NOV. 23
The Shiv Sena, NCP and theCongress on Saturday nightmoved the Supreme Courtseeking the quashing ofGovernor Bhagat SinghKoshiyari’s decision to inviteChief Minister DevendraFadnavis to form governmentand swearing-in him anddeputy CM Ajit AnantraoPawar.
The three-party alliancesaid the Governor’s decisionwas “unconstitutional, arbi-trary, illegal, void-ab-initioand violative of Article 14 ofthe Constitution.”
The hearing will take placeon Sunday at 11.30 am.
Contending that theGovernor acted in a partisanmanner, the petition says thatKoshyari’s action was“malafide and for extraneousconsiderations without aprime facie satisfaction basedon objective material” thatFadnavis had majority sup-port in the Assembly.
It urged the top court todirect the Governor Koshyarito invite the alliance to formthe government with UddhavThackeray as CM as itenjoyed the support of morethan 144 legislators-elect (thehalfway mark in the 288-member Assembly).
The joint petition by thealliance contended that they,along with the support ofeight Independents have thesupport of 162 lawmakers.
Lawyers who filed the peti-tion sought an urgent hear-ing and cited the instance ofKarnataka where a challengeto the swearing-in of CM B.S.Yediyurappa was heard atnight.
Contending that theGovernor’s discretion ininviting Fadnavis was notbeyond the pale of judicialreview, it said illegal andarbitrary actions in brazendisregard to the Constitutionand parliamentary conven-tions are to be struck down bythe court as “the sentinel onthe qui vive of theConstitution.”
It said the Governor’s dis-cretionary powers are notipse dixit but have to be exer-cised within Constitutionalnorms.
The pre-requisite to the for-mation of government is theprima facie satisfaction of
the Governor based on“objective material” that theleader staking claim enjoysthe majority support of thepopularly elected lawmakers.
“The principle is sine quanon parliamentary democra-cy,” said the petition settledby senior lawyer DevadattKamat.
“The political executive isresponsible to the legislatureand can continue only so longas it enjoys the confidence ofthe majority.” The petitionsought direction for an imme-diate floor test within 24hours to stall any horse-trad-ing and illegal maneuvers tocobble up a majority.
“There is nothing in thepublic domain as to how andin what manner Fadnavisand/or the BJP had stakedclaim to power between theintervening night ofNovember 22 and 23, nor anymaterial in the public domainto show that he had carriedletters of support of 144MLAs which in any event wasnot legally possible to do so,”the petition said.
It pointed out that therewas no parading of lawmak-ers before the Governor todemonstrate majority back-ing for Fadnavis. It categori-cally asserted that all MLAsof their front are completelyand solidly together exceptfor Ajit Pawar.
Recounting the sequenceleading to the oath ofFadnavis, the petition pointsout how the Centre and theGovernor moved with hasteimmediately after the trio ofSena, NCP and Congressannounced formation oftheir alliance with a commonminimum programme (CMP)on the evening of November22, with a unanimity onUddhav Thackeray as ChiefMinister.
Facing the prospect of anon-BJP government stakingclaim to power, the BJP in theintervening night resorted topolitical machinations in anattempt to install a complete-ly unconstitutional BJP gov-ernment in the state, the peti-tion said.
Sena, NCP, Cong moveSC against swearing-in
DC CCORRESPONDENTMUMBAI, NOV. 23
Amid political uncertain-ty in Maharashtra, theShiv Sena, Congress andNationalist CongressParty (NCP) are taking nochances and were all seton Saturday evening tomove their MLAs to thesafety of resorts in a bidto stop alleged poachingattempts by the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP).
Sena chief UddhavThackeray on Saturdayafternoon met his partylegislators, who are camp-ing in a hotel in Mumbai,and told them to bepatient.
On the other hand, theCongress has decided toshift all its MLAs toJaipur, Rajasthan. TheNCP is also likely to move49 of its 54 MLAs to aresort.
After holding a jointpress conference withNCP chief Sharad Pawar,Mr Thackeray immedi-ately reached Hotel Lalitnear the airport in subur-ban Andheri where hisMLAs are stationed.
“Everyone is shocked bywhat happened today," hetold his partymen. MrThackeray expressed con-fidence that not a singleSena MLA would quit theparty.
“Let them try to break
our party,” he said in anapparent warning to theBJP, which has said thatsome Sena MLAs are intouch with it.
However, going by thedramatic developments inthe state, there is specula-tion that the Sena mayshift its MLAs to anotherstate to prevent poaching.
Senior BJP leaderGirish Mahajan claimedthat Sena leaders are frus-trated with Sanjay Raut.
“His statements canonly be called verbal diar-rhoea. Many Shiv Senalegislators may also thinkof going with us,” he said.
Sources from the BJPclaimed that someCongress legislators arealso in touch with it.
Rajasthan ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot,meanwhile, indicatedthat MaharashtraCongress MLAs mightonce again be put up atJaipur. Last week, theparty had moved them toJaipur, out of the BJP’sreach.
Most NCP MLAs, bar-ring Ajit Pawar and fourothers, attended the meet-ing called by SharadPawar in Mumbai onSaturday evening.
“All MLAs are likely tobe taken outside the stateand will be brought backbefore the trust vote,” asource said.
Resort politics infull swing in Maha
Party asks probing questions on timeline of Cabinet meet, Prez’s decision
BJP workers celebrate after Devendra Fadnavis took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister for the second term, inMumbai, on Saturday. — PTI
Today’s oath-taking ceremony
was conductedwithout band, bajaand baaraat. Thisepisode will be writtenwith dark ink in thehistory ofMaharashtra. The wayoath-taking ceremonywas conducted showsthere is somethingwrong
AHMED PATELCongress leader
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7SUNDAY | 24 NOVEMBER 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE
MORNING IN MAHAAbhishek Singhvi@DrAMSinghviCandidly and per-sonally speaking,our tripartitenegotiationsshould not have gone on formore than 3 days, took too long.Window given was grabbed byfast movers.
Siddaramaiah@siddaramaiahThere is no needfor majority thesedays. Just thatparty like
@BJP4India needs ED, EC & IT intheir hands. They know the artof manipulating democratic val-ues just for the sake of power
Yogi Adityanath@myogiadityanathUnder the leader-ship of SriDevendraFadnavis ji and SriAjit Pawar ji, Maharashtra willbe on the path of development
Ashok Gehlot@ashokgehlot51Details that areemerging from#Maharashtra areshocking & shows
Governor acted in connivancewith BJP n administered theoath of office to Fadnavis jiwithout verifying signatures ofNCP MLAs. Governor mustresign on moral ground
M.K.Stalin@mkstalin What does onecompare the dis-gusting and despi-cable political situ-ation in Maharashtra to?Terming it a murder of democracy would not even besufficient
Barkha Dutt@BDUTT Should one paygreater attentionto the frenziedrumours that
Sharad Pawar will be nextPresident of India? Near impos-sible to believe that a stunningcoup has been pulled off by thenephew.
Security personnel keep vigil at a hotel where ShivSena MLAs are residing, in Mumbai, on Saturday. — PTI
DC CCORRESPONDENTMUMBAI, NOV. 23
After he joined hands withthe BJP in a bid to form thenext government, NCP leaderAjit Pawar, termed a rebelMLA by the party, was sackedas the leader of NCP legisla-tive party. State NCP chiefJayant Patil was elected thenew legislative party leaderin a meeting called by partychief Sharad Pawar. Thishappened after Ajit Pawarpurportedly broke the partyand supported BJP to clan-destinely form the govern-ment overnight. “The deci-sion to remove Ajit Pawarfrom the position of leader oflegislative party was taken atthe meeting of MLAs calledby Sharad Pawar,” said a NCPsource. As per the NCP’sstatement, Pawar and JayantPatil will take a final decisionon Ajit Pawar’s future in theparty. The BJP termed AjitPawar’s sacking from thepost of NCP’s legislativeparty chief “illegal.”
BJP leader Ashish Shelarsaid, “Ajit Pawar was electedas the legislative party leaderon November 30 and such let-ter was submitted to theGovernor. Based on that let-ter, the Govenor took his deci-sion to give oath to DevendraFadnavis and Mr Pawar.After the governor has takenhis decision, any decision tochange the legislative partyleader can only be taken afterconsulting the governor.Therefore, the decisionannounced by NCPspokesperson Nawab Malikon Saturday is illegal. MrPawar is still the legislativeparty leader of NCP.”
Jayant Patil
JAYANT PATIL MADENCP LEGISLATIVEPARTY LEADER
■ ■ The petition points outhow the Centre and theGovernor moved with hasteafter Sena, NCP andCongress announced thealliance with a common mini-mum programme on Nov 22
TWITTER ABUZZWITH JOKES ONMAHA ‘MESS’Mumbai, Nov. 23:Industrialist AnandMahindra on Saturdayshared a Kabaddi videoshowing a ‘raider’falling prey to an auda-cious move executed bya ‘defender’ to illus-trate the ongoing polit-ical drama inMaharashtra.
Mahindra retweetedan old viral video of aKabaddi match, whichshowed a ‘raider’ get-ting trapped by a‘defender.’
“Remember thisvideo I had tweeted?Can you think of anymore appropriate wayto describe what justhappened inMaharashtra?” twee-ted Mahindra, whoheads the city-head-quartered $20 billiongroup.
Industrialist HarshGoenka, who heads theRPG group, also tweet-ed about the day’s hap-penings.
“Shared Pawar”, hetweeted, perhaps sug-gesting that two mem-bers of the Pawar fami-ly — NCP chief SharadPawar and his rene-gade nephew Ajit —are now in differentcamps.
Later, Goenkaretweeted anotheruser’s message, whichsaid the race for theCM’s post is not overyet.
“3 movies with themost twists and turnsthat I have ever seen:Race, Andhadhun,Maharashtrachya CMKaun? (Who isMaharashtra’s CM?)something tells me thelast one isn’t over yet,give me more popcornplease,” the tweet said.
Meanwhile, SajjanJindal of JSW Groupcongratulated CMFadnavis for comingback to power after abrief spell ofPresident’s rule.
“Congratulations to@Dev_Fadnavis on tak-ing oath as ChiefMinister. Continuity inleadership is beneficialfor the state and I wishhim the very best forhis second tenure,”Jindal tweeted. — PTI
SONU SSHRIVASTAVA || DDCMUMBAI, NOV. 23
The mid-night drama ofgovernment formation inMaharashtra was orches-trated by none other thanBharatiya Janata Party(BJP) chief Amit Shah,sources said on Saturday.
Mr Shah was in contactwith Nationalist CongressParty (NCP) leader AjitPawar since the day stateBJP leaders submitted aletter expressing theirinability to form the gov-ernment, highly placedsources in the NCP andBJP told this newspaper.
However, it was SharadPawar’s move to suggestSupriya Sule’s name forthe Chief Minister’s postfor two-and-a-half yearsthat forced Ajit Pawar tojoin hands with the BJP, asenior Maratha politiciansaid.
“This was actually thetrigger point, due to whichAjit Pawar inked the dealwith the BJP as he was notbeing considered for theChief Minister’s post,” hesaid.
A source in the NCP alsoconfirmed that many peo-ple in the party knew thatAjit Pawar was speakingwith Mr Shah over thephone but nobody mus-tered the courage to speakup in the party’s meetingabout it.
“The BJP has used inves-tigative agencies to extractAjit Pawar from the MahaVikas Aghadi,” claimed
the source. The source alsosaid that an industrialistfrom Rajasthan, who is agood friend of the NCPleader, also played a cru-cial role in mediationbetween the NCP leaderand the BJP’s Delhi leader-ship.
The source also claimedthat Ajit Pawar had nottaken any decision withoutthe approval of his uncle.
A senior BJP leader andformer Cabinet minister,requesting anonymity, saidthat the party’s centralleadership, along withChief Minister DevendraFadnavis, was in touchwith Ajit Pawar all along,even as he was participat-ing in all NCP meetings.
Another NCP leader,requesting anonymity, saidthat Ajit Pawar had beenexpressing his desire to gowith the BJP instead of theShiv Sena since day one.
The leader claimed thatAjit Pawar feared an EDcrackdown and an inquiryinto the irrigation scam.
Pawar’s similar move 41 years ago had led to the fall of Vasantdada Patil’s governmentAPRAMEYA RRAO || DDCMUMBAI, NOV. 23
In splitting the NCP, AjitPawar managed to repeatwhat his uncle SharadPawar had done in July 1978to become Chief Minister.
An election in 1978 threwa hung Assembly with theJanata Party emerging asthe single-largest partywith 99 seats. However, thetwo factions of theCongress — the IndianNational Congress andCongress (Indira) — togeth-er held over 130. With thesupport of smaller partiesand independents, theuneasy post-poll coalitionenjoyed a wafer-thin major-ity of just four seats.
With an unsteady alliance,
the Vasantdada Patil-ledgovernment was always onnotice. That the govern-ment would fall was neverin doubt, but its abrupt endcreated ripples across theIndian political spectrum.The end was brought aboutby the then-37-year-oldindustries ministerSharadchandra GovindraoPawar.
That Pawar was alwayswaiting to be the CM wasnot a secret. His mentor,Yashwantrao Chavan, hadbeen grooming the youngPawar to take over someday.So it came as no surprisewhen Pawar began assert-ing himself after the 1978assembly polls.
Interestingly, Pawar ini-tially backed the
Vasantdada Patil govern-ment to help it survive a no-confidence motion but laterdrove to the Raj Bhavan andstaked claim to form the
new government.In his 2015 autobiography,
On My Terms: From theGrassroots to the Corridorsof Power, Pawar narrated
the back channel betweenhis associates — AbasahebKulkarni and Kisan Veer —and the then Janata Partychief Chandra Shekhar.
In the book, he added theJanata Party was keen onforming the governmentand that Chandra Shekharhad also held talks withstate Janata Party leadersUttamrao Patil and S.M.Joshi. Eventually, 38 MLAsof the Patil-led Congressbroke away to form theSamantar Congress.
The Janata Party andPeasants and WorkersParty backed Pawar, whowas sworn in as CM on July18, 1978.
The episode cementedPawar’s credentials as awily politician though the
stigma of having betrayedPatil followed him. In hisautobiography, he blamedthe uneasy alliancebetween the two Congressparties for his action.However, his deeds in lateryears such as the merger ofhis Congress (Socialist)with the Congress (I) in1986, and his post-pollalliance with the SoniaGandhi-led Congress justmonths after splitting fromthe party in 1999 betrayedwhat his critics might referto as his ‘opportunisticinstincts’.
While time will tell howsuccessful Ajit’s gambit is,his decision to join handswith arch-rival BJP resem-bles a move from his uncle’s1978 playbook.
DC CCORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, NOV. 23
Even as senior NCP leaderAjit Pawar was sworn in asthe Deputy Chief Ministerof Maharashtra onSaturday, the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) claimedthat investigations into thecase against him in con-nection with MaharashtraState Co-operative Bank(MSCB) scam to the tune of`25,000 crore will continue.
The ED registered a caseof money launderingagainst Ajit Pawar and theNCP supremo onSeptember 24 in the run upto the MaharashtraAssembly elections whichled to a huge political con-troversy.
The ED case comes inwake of directions fromthe Bombay High Courtthat asked the EconomicOffences Wing (EOW) ofthe Mumbai Police toinvestigate and file casesagainst the Pawars andsome others in the allegedcase of bank scam.
The Mumbai Police’sEOW had lodged an FIR inAugust in the case, follow-ing which the ED regis-tered a case of money laun-dering in the matter. It hasbeen alleged that therewere several irregularitiesin the loans provided to theCo-operative SugarFactories by MSCB offi-cials who had links withthe factory owners.
According to ED, the saidloans were granted despitethese sugar factories hav-ing very weak financials aswell as negative net worth.In most cases collateralswere also not taken andadditional facilities were
extended without any justi-fication.
These loans along withsome other wrong deci-sions resulted in many ofthese sugar factories beingreported which were sub-sequently sold at lowerthan the reserve price tobenefit some of the buyerswho were personally orpolitically connected withthe some of the politicalleaders and directors ofthe bank.
The ED is also investigat-ing another senior NCPleader, Praful Patel, inanother case of allegedmoney laundering for pos-sible links with assets oflate Iqbal Mirchi, said to bean associate of underworlddon Dawood Ibrahim.
ED had questioned MrPatel for more than 12hours in this case lastmonth.
According to ED officials,Mr Patel’s MillenniumDevelopers Pvt. Ltd. hadconstructed a buildingcalled Ceejay House in theyear 2006-07.
The agency also allegedthat the ownership of thirdand fourth floors of thisbuilding were transferredto Mirchi’s wife, HajraIqbal.
The land on which thebuilding was constructedwas apparently owned byMirchi. The investigatingagency also claimed thatthe land was purchasedfrom the proceeds of crime— money laundering anddrugs trafficking.
Incidentally, the ED hasalso questioned Mr Patel inanother case of allegedmoney laundering which islinked to an aviation scam.
ED probe againstPawar to go on
From Page 1
It was at the RSS’ behestthat Union minister NitinGadkari got into the gameand tapped Ajit Pawar.
Home minister AmitShah’s trusted aideBhupinder Yadav alsojoined the secret negotia-tions.
A senior saffron leaderrevealed that the BJPdecided to up its gamewhen the meeting betweenSharad Pawar and PrimeMinister Narendra Modion November 19 “did not goalong expected lines.”
There is speculation thatSharad Pawar had “polite-ly turned down” the BJPhigh command’s “request”for support.
A day before the GrandAlliance was expected tostake claim, BhupinderYadav rushed to Mumbaiand the rest is history.Only six top saffron lead-ers other than Ajit Pawarwere aware of the gamebeing played: the PM, AmitShah, RSS chief Mohan
Bhagwat, Yadav andGadkari. BJP chief J.P.Nadda was reportedly toldof the Maharashtra devel-opments earlier this week.
An ambitious Ajit Pawarwas believed to be “jittery”that his future as the NCPheir apparent was dashedwhen Sharad Pawar'sdaughter Supriya Suleentered politics.
He was further anxiouswhen NCP chief's grand-nephew Rohit Pawarentered politics and beganto rise in the organisation.Before the Assembly pollshe again enacted a resigna-tion drama and quit asBaramati MLA, upset withRohit’s debut.
In the end, Ajit Pawarcould well join the line ofscorned nephews in Indianpolitics -Harish Rao inTelangana Rashtra Samiti(TRS), Raj Thackeray inMaharashtra, the Maransin Tamil Nadu, ManpreetBadal in Punjab. OrMaharashtra could be wit-nessing the rise of a newPawar.
New Delhi, Nov. 23:Legal experts have differ-ent opinions as to whenthe anti-defection lawcomes into play with oneof them saying it has no‘impact’ at the time ofgovernment formationwhile another felt that itwill apply irrespective ofthe fact where MLAs havetaken oath.
Senior lawyer and con-stitutional law expertRakesh Dwivedi, whenasked as to when and howthe anti-defection law willoperate in Maharashtra’scase, said it has no impactat the time of governmentformation which alwaystakes place before oathtaking of MLAs in theAssembly.
“The anti-defection lawhas no impact at time offormation of the govern-ment. The government isalways formed before theoath of MLAs and MPs,”he said, adding that,“Later, somebody willhave to move an applica-tion before the AssemblySpeaker alleging defec-tion, if any.”
Senior advocate VikasSingh, however, said thatthe anti-defection law willapply and the administra-tion of oath to MLAs isimmaterial.
“Anti-defection law willapply. It does not matterwhether MLAs havetaken oath or not. This isall posturing up,” he said.
He said that bargainingwas still on and that iswhy this is happening.
“Supposing in this case,the faction claims to bereal NCP. Then a questionmay arise and theElection Commission willhave to take a call whichis the main NCP for thepurpose of anti-defectionlaw. This will also be along drawn process. Themain NCP will be the onewhich has the majority ofMLAs,” he said.
Dwivedi said after thegovernment formation,the Governor asks theChief Minister to provethe majority on the floorof the Assembly which isconvened, and pro temSpeaker administers theoath to MLAs.
He said after the elec-tion of Speaker, floor testis taken up and then theanti-defection law comesin if a plea is movedbefore the speaker in thisregard. — PTI
ANTI-DEFECTIONLAW’S IMPACTUNDER QUESTION
PAGE
8SUNDAY | 24 NOVEMBER 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE
MORNING IN MAHA
A MOVE FROM KAKA’S ’78 PLAYBOOK
Pawar vs Pawar run-ins nothing newDC CCORRESPONDENTMUMBAI, NOV. 23
“Party and family splits.”This WhatsApp status post-ed by NCP MP Supriya Suleon Saturday said it all. Herpost read: “Whom to trust?The biggest cheating in mylife. What did I receive inlieu of the support and loveI gave to him? (sic)”
Later, an emotional MsSule broke into tears whilespeaking to the media.
It was not the first time
that a dispute in the Pawarfamily came out into theopen. Earlier, there weremurmurs that not all waswell in the family headed byNCP chief Sharad Pawar.The signs of conflict werevisible on several occa-sions.
The last straw came whenAjit Pawar’s son Parth wasdefeated in the Lok Sabhapoll from Maval constituen-cy. Sources said SharadPawar was against giving aticket to Parth. He even can-
celled his candidacy fromMadha constituency, argu-ing that it was no good tofield so many candidatesfrom a single family.Though Ajit Pawar triedhard to ensure his son’s vic-tory, he did not succeed.
The emergence of SharadPawar’s grandnephewRohit added further fuel tothe fire as he was consid-ered a political successor tothe former Union minister.
“Ajit’s feud with SharadPawar and daughter
Supriya intensified over thelast few months, triggeredby disputes over ticket dis-tribution for the Lok Sabhaand Assembly elections,” asource said.
After the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) initiatedaction against Ajit Pawar,his uncle turned the tablesby announcing that hewould visit the centralagency’s office to faceinquiry. However, AjitPawar ruined his efforts ason the same day, he
resigned as a legislator. Later, he took a U-turn,
claiming he had resigned asthe ED tried to deliberatelyimplicate his uncle. A hintthat all was not well in thefamily emerged when AjitPawar stormed out ofNCP’s meeting at SilverOak, the elder Pawar’s resi-dence, arguing that a sched-uled meeting with Congressleaders had been cancelledand he was heading forBaramati, his Assemblyconstituency.
‘Shah-Ajit werein it all the way’
Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray and Yuva Sena Chief Aaditya Thackeray leave after ajoint press conference, in Mumbai, on Saturday. — PTI
SONU SSHRIVASTAVA || DDCMUMBAI, NOV. 23
Though the governmenthas been formed, it is stillnot clear if it has a clearmajority. The Governor hasgiven Devendra Fadnavistime till November 30 toprove his majority on thefloor of the legislativeAssembly. The BJP has 105MLAs and needs 40 more toreach the majority mark.
According to sources,nearly 28 to 30 NCP MLAsare with Ajit Pawar. TheBJP also has the support ofaround 15 IndependentMLAs. However, NCP chiefSharad Pawar and ShivSena chief UddhavThackeray claimed that thegovernment would not sur-vive the floor test.
A senior BJP leaderrequesting anonymity said
that Ajit Pawar is in touchwith 28 to 30 legislators,including DhananjayMunde, whom Fadnaviswants inducted into hisCabinet.
By evening, most MLAswho were with Ajit Pawarjoined the NCP MLAs meet-ing called by Sharad Pawar.
However, MLAs attendinga party meeting is not anindication of how they willvote in the Assembly, said
political analyst AbhayDeshpande.
“After so much effort bythe BJP’s national leader-ship and the Union cabinetfor government formation,it is not possible that theBJP will let NCP MLAs goback so easily.
They must be confident ofhow they will vote in theAssembly and that is allthat will matter now,”Deshpande said.
The senior BJP leaderalso claimed that oneshould not be surprised ifSupriya Sule, daughter ofSharad Pawar, would beinducted in Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s cabinet inthe future.
“The NCP wants tobecome Maharashtra’snumber two party by spoil-ing the Shiv Sena’s image,”he added.
It’s a messy numbers gameBHAGWAN PPARAB || DDCMUMBAI, NOV. 23
Governor Bhagat SinghKoshyari has given a dead-line of November 30 forChief Minister DevendraFadnavis to prove hismajority in the VidhanSabha, but the actual showof strength will be the elec-tion of the AssemblySpeaker. This will comefirst, and will determinewhether Fadnavis will con-tinue as CM or not.
According to sources inthe state legislature, nowthat the Governor hasasked Fadnavis to form thegovernment, the onus is onthe CM to prove his majori-ty within the stipulatedtime. To facilitate this, theGovernor will have to initi-ate the proceedings of theVidhan Sabha formation.
For this, a brief legisla-
tive session will be called inwhich a pro tem Speakerwill be elected to give oathto all newly-elected mem-bers of the Assembly. Thehonour of pro tem Speakeris normally given to the eld-est member.
Among the newly-electedmembers, the Congress’Balasaheb Thorat is theeldest MLA.
However, given the deli-cate political situation, theBJP is unlikely to risk mak-ing him the pro temSpeaker and would ratherhave its own person at thehelm, said sources.
After swearing in theMLAs the pro tem Speakerwill initiate proceedingsfor the election of theSpeaker. If there is a clearmajority with either theruling coalition or theopposition alliance, theSpeaker might be elected
on just a voice vote.However, if a division issought in case of an ambi-guity, a vote will decidefrom whose party theSpeaker will come, thesource added.
If Fadnavis manages toclear the Speaker’s elec-tion, it will prove that hehas the numbers to win thevote of confidence onNovember 30. But if hefails, it will confirm that hedoesn’t have a majority andwill have to resign beforefacing the floor test.
NCP’s Nawab Malikadmitted that the Speaker’selection would be more cru-cial than even the majoritytest.
“We will ensure that a sin-gle candidate is fieldedfrom the Shiv Sena, NCPand Congress alliance todefeat the BJP in that vote.”
Speaker’s poll could be key
Pawar turned downModi’s request
Akola, Nov. 23: VanchitBahujan Aghadi (VBA)leader Prakash Ambedkarhas sought to linkSaturday’s political devel-opments in Maharashtrawith Sharad Pawar’srecent meeting with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi inDelhi, though he didn’ttake the name of the NCPchief.
“Some leaders of the NCPmet with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and (BJPchief) Amit Shah. The pur-pose (of the meeting) wasstated to be to discussissues concerning rain-hitfarmers. Two days ago,Maharashtra Governorannounced compensationto farmers. The perceptionthat something was fishystarted developing fromthat point (Pawar-Modimeet),” Ambedkar toldreporters.
Sharad Pawar had onNovember 20 met the
Prime Minister inParliament ostensibly todiscuss farmers’ distressin Maharashtra, two daysafter the PM praised theNCP for maintaining disci-pline on floor.
His meeting happened ata time when the Congressand the NCP stepped upmomentum on forming agovernment in collabora-tion with the Shiv Sena.
The VBA leader said hewas not surprised over theturn of recent politicalevents.
“I had already said thatthe Shiv Sena should notbecome a parrot. It is nec-essary to remain vigilantin politics,” he said.
Ambedkar further said itwas hard to believe that theGovernor Bhagat SinghKoshyari acted suddenly.
He expressed fear thatMumbai will become aUnion Territory.
— PTI
‘It all began withModi-Pawar meet’
NCP President Sharad Pawar arrives for a press confer-ence, in Mumbai, on Saturday. — PTI
Supriya Sule’s name for CMpost angered Ajit Pawar
■ ■ POLITICAL AANALYSTSsay MLAs attending a partymeeting is not an indica-tion of how they will votein the Assembly
■ ■ Leaders in the know ofthings claimed that AjitPawar had not taken anydecision without theapproval of his uncle.
■ ■ NCP LLEADERS say AjitPawar had been expressinghis desire to go with theBJP instead of the ShivSena since day one, fearingan ED crackdown and aninquiry into the irrigationscam
